Misunderstanding and Misconception
by violet.periwinkle
Summary: Atobe and Ryoma DATING! Or not. This was just a whole misunderstanding and misconception. People were ASSUMING that they were dating. And a 3rd year senior is falling hard for their little freshman, but is he brave enough to break the 'relationship' between Atobe and Ryoma? [FemRyo] and Pairing is FemRyoFuji
1. 1: Echizen Ryoma

Hi guys, this is my first fanfiction story ever. I don't know if its any good, but I had fun writing it at least.

Warning: FEM RYOMA and because I'm too lazy to create another name, let's just pretend that Ryoma is a common name for both guys and girls.

Rated T for language, if not in this chapter, later on.

"…" This is a normal conversation

 _'…' This is a thought_

Disclaimer: PoT is not mine and belongs to Takeshi Konomi.

* * *

I just updated and tweaked the story a bit. I changed Ryoma's character a bit, to make her distrust other people. I don't want her to be too much OOC and I definitely do not want her to be weak just because she is a female.

* * *

Chapter 1: Moving back to Japan

A certain dark green-haired girl's head was peeking out from behind a pillar, looking to her right and left carefully - checking whether there were people in the area. Seeing no one, she heaved a sigh of relief before coming out of her hiding place.

Her feature was by no means ordinary. She had the brightest sparkling hazel eyes, with a tint of gold, that would make people lost themselves when gazing at those eyes. Her thick, straight hair flowed freely few inches past her shoulder, and her bangs graced her face in a way that shaped it to look thinner, but still maintained her elegance. Height-wise, she was considered as petite. But what she lacked in height, she made up in body appearance. Her body was slim and had a defined hourglass shape which would be the envy of every woman. She was really slim due to tennis and she had just enough muscle to be considered lean, but not bulky. Basically, she was naturally stunning and gorgeous – not that she would know, as she was too ignorant about all the girly things that beautify herself by other non-natural means.

' _Why do I have to hide every time?'_ She thought with a huff of annoyance and started to walk. Not even 5 steps were taken when she heard

"THERE SHE IS!"

"KYAAA, ECHIZEN MARRY ME"

"RYOMA, I LOVE YOUUU"

"ACCEPT THIS CHOCOLATE PLEASE RYOMA"

' _Damn!'_ And with that she started running with a high speed rivaling a jaguar. She kept running towards the school front gate when she saw her best friend, Kevin Smith, standing leisurely against the school gate and reading a comic book.

"Kevin, help me here!" She yelled when she was a few feet away from him.

The said boy seemed not to hear her, or if he did, he showed no sign of it, and continued reading the book.

"Kevin Smith!" She growled and yelled louder.

Sighing loudly because his peace was disturbed, Kevin finally put down his book and looked amusedly when she saw her and a herd of sheep (or people) behind her.

"Late again, Ryoma? Honestly this is so unbecoming."

"And why do you think I was late? Just help me here, grrr."

"Fine as I'm a very good friend here"

With that, Kevin let her ran behind him and shouted with a very loud voice,

"EVERYBODY STOP!" And as if his voice had a magical element in it, the crowd stopped to a screeching halt. "That's enough for today guys. Now, now Ryoma here is tired. Try again tomorrow and maybe you guys will have better lu- OWW"

Ryoma smacked Kevin on the head, "Don't encourage them to try again, damn it!"

With a pout (and a bump on his head), the boy continued, "Okay, bye guys. See you again sometimes", and winked toward the crowd before grabbing Ryoma by the hand and ran off the school compound.

'3.. 2.. 1.." Kevin thought.

"NO RYOMA COME BACK!"

"YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS CAKE I MADE FOR YOU"

"I WANT A PICTURE OF YOU"

Disappointed shouts, groans and complaints were heard.

Just when they thought they managed to get out of the frying pan, they walked into the fire. The paparazzi were already waiting outside the school compound, waiting for Ryoma to show up.

"ECHIZEN A PICTURE PLEASE!"

"AN INTERVIEW WITH YOU RYOMA"

"ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS FROM US PLEASE"

 _'Oh no…'_ And both the teens ran with a speed never seen before.

After running for quite some time, they both stopped seeing there was no one following them anymore.

"Haa.. haa.. Why do they.. do this everyday? Aren't they … tired?" Ryoma managed to say in between her breaths

"Hmm, I don't know, but maybe it has to do with the fact that you are Echizen Ryoma, world's most famous tennis player who became youngest contestant of the US Open and took the tennis world by storm? But I don't know, there could be other unknown and not so obvious reason." Kevin joked sarcastically.

"But don't they have anything better to do than chasing me around everyday? And please, I understand fanboys, but fangirls?! What the hell, I'm still straight okay! Not to mention the paparazzi every single day. I'm getting tired of all this!"

"Well, the girls adore you, they think you're pretty, although we all know that the truth is you're not – OW" and that comment earned Kevin another smack on the head.

"Tsk, whatever, let's go home."

 **. . .**

 _US Open, Final Match_

"GAME, SET AND MATCH – 7 GAMES TO 5, ECHIZEN RYOMA" With that, the crowd roared with excitement as Ryoma became the youngest winner of the US Open.

Ryoma walked away from the court towards the exit. But the paparazzi were more than ready with their questions. Ryoma, as usual, did not even spare them a glance and continued walking toward the exit, when suddenly a pair of strong arms managed to grab her arm and pulled her backward. With a thud, her butt immediately fell to the floor.

"WHO WAS THAT!" She screamed, as she was very much furious now. As no one would come up and confess, she stumped away toward her personal changing room set up by the tennis committee.

"Ryoma dear, are you okay? Let me look at your arm," Rinko's sweet voice was heard when she was halfway to her room.

"I'm fine, mum. It's just one of the reporter tugged my arm and I fell. They are getting on my nerves, I swear."

"WHAT! Who did that to my precious _chibisuke_? Come let me find them and give them a taste of hell." Kevin and Ryoga were practically shouting with rage.

"Let's find the guy," Nanjiro growled, "and make him pay a hundred times more."

"I am not a chibisuke and stop embarrassing me, _oyaji_ _!_ Argh whatever, I'm gonna head to the room and change my clothes. I'll meet you guys in front of the car." With that, Ryoma walked to her room.

In front of her changing-room, she saw a thin boy glancing his left and right, as if he was lost.

"Hey boy, what are you doing here? This is my room."

Hearing her voice, the said boy immediately looked up and his face seemed to perk up. "Err, here, I wanted to give you this…" while holding up a can of grape-flavored American brand Ponta, "You had a really a great match, and I thought you might be thirsty." The boy seemed very shy and timid.

 _'Well, I guess the boy means no harm, and he had my favorite drink_ ' Ryoma thought and took the can, opened it and started to drink it.

"Well, thanks boy."

And she went into the room, leaving the boy outside, and started changing.

After a while, she suddenly had a headache and her line of vision started to get blurry. ' _Weird, why do I feel so dizzy?_ '

She settled down on her chair to chase the headache away, but it seemed to get worse. And there, she saw the timid boy, smiling evilly in front of her.

"Call for help please, I'm not feeling so well,"

"There's no one to help you now."

That's the last thing she heard before darkness surrounded her.

 **. . .**

 _Half an hour later_

Ryoma was actually losing a game in the US Open final. She was struggling to catch her breath because somehow her opponent was better than her stupid brother and perverted father. Her opponent was smashing a ball on the far corner opposite where she was right now, and she ran to catch the ball.

'C _'mon Ryoma, run faster_.' Ran faster she did and the ball seemed so near her grasp now. She pushed her body forward while stretching her racket in her left hand and fell onto the ground, scraping her knees. She didn't catch the ball and the pain from her fall was immensely great. She was trying to stand up but failed. Ryoma lay on the ground.

"… Oma, wake up please"

"Will she… okay, doctor?"

"… honey … up …!"

She suddenly heard these voices in her head and started to open her eyes slowly. She wasn't in the court anymore, and instead saw a bright light from the ceiling and a lot of blur faces in front of her.

"Look! She's waking up!"

"Oh thank God!"

She fluttered her eyes open and the images in front of her started to focus. She was still in her changing-room but somehow all her family members (including Kevin) were looking at her worriedly. And she still had that terrible headache.

"What happened?" She said while clutching her head, "I thought I was changing?"

"That boy over there tried to rape you!" Nanjiro yelled while pointing at an unconscious tied up boy at the corner of the room.

"How dare he do that to my chibisuke! Grrr, I'm gonna beat him up" Ryoga yelled while trying to go to the boy but was hold back by Kevin.

"Oh honey, I'm so glad you're okay! The boy gave you sleeping pills inside the can drink and when you didn't come to the car after 15 minutes, we got worried. So we went to your room, and we found him trying to open your shirt. Thank God we found you before anything happens." Rinko was talking so fast and her tone was full of worries.

"We called the police and they are coming here soon. Wow, you should have seen your dad and brother beat the hell out of the boy when they saw what happened!" Kevin chirped amusedly.

 _'And I thought that boy looked so timid and harmless._ ' Ryoma stayed silent the whole entire time and tried to grasp what happened.

 **. . .**

 _At Echizen's residence_

"I DON'T CARE, WE ARE MOVING BACK TO JAPAN NOW. US IS NO LONGER SAFE FOR RYOMA!" Her father's screaming was heard throughout the house.

"YEAH! FIRST THE PAPARAZZI HAND GRABBING, AND NOW THE ATTEMPTED RAPE. NOT TO MENTION THE FANGIRLS AND BOYS HARASSING RYOMA EVERYDAY" Ryoga agreed passionately.

"Guys, can you calm down?" Ryoma was starting to get annoyed, "We can't move now. I still have a few weeks of school here." Though, Ryoma agreed with his father and brother's idea to move to Japan because she herself was starting to get annoyed with her fame (and fans and paparazzi). This incident was the last straw for her, as she still valued her privacy.

"Well, I guess you can just skip school and start in Japan. I'm sure they would let you do that, dear. I don't want to take any more risk. I'll take care of the paperwork. But only Nanjiro and Ryoga can move with her. I still have to take care of Kevin's adoption paper. We'll catch up in a few months." Her mother voiced out her opinion and that was final. She gave the boys a frightening glare before the boys had the chance to protest.

Kevin suddenly mentioned, "Oh we still have to take care of the press."

 **. . .**

 _At the press conference_

The press was buzzing with noises, trying to figure out what was happening. It was rare that Ryoma was willing to talk to the press and even rarer for her to call out a sudden press conference.

"What do you think is happening?" A reporter was asking.

"Maybe she's sick!"

"She's injured?"

"Maybe she's calling out to tell about her engangement."

"Or she's pregnant!"

"WHAT?!"

And the (silly) rumors continued, until they saw Ryoma entering the room followed by her father, brother and Kevin.

"Ehem…" She shaked the microphone in front of her to gain attention.

"As of today, I am announcing my retirement from the US tennis world. Thank you for your time."

The room went loud with questions, but Ryoma paid no heed and went out of the room.

'That's Ryoma for you, announcing her retirement with a sentence. Sigh' Kevin sweatdropped before following her out of the room.

 _Echizen's residence_

"How are we going to protect Ryoma from fan boys if Kevin is not in school with her?" Nanjiro asked Rinko, Ryoga and Kevin, while Ryoma was in her room, showering.

Ryoga, his mind full of horrible thoughts, said "I don't want Ryoma to get raped, NOOO"

"This is why I told you guys to think before anything else," Rinko chided them and straightaway both of them shut up.

"Well, maybe we can ask someone else to take care of Ryoma for a while in school. But who?" Kevin asked.

"We can ask the Atobes! If I'm not wrong, Keigo is still in high school and he can look out for Ryoma. I'm sure Keigo won't mind looking out for his cousin." Rinko suggested, "so Ryoma will go to his school, then? What it it called? Hyotei?"

"NO CAN DO! Ryoma is going to my old school, Seigaku and that's final!" Nanjiro pushed his opinion to the family. He continued, "Oh I know, I can that old hag of a coach to keep an eye on her while in school!"

"Hmm, I guess that would work. I'll still ask Keigo to take care of Ryoma outside school then." Rinko agreeing with her husband.

While the whole Echizen family was debating downstair, Ryoma was in the shower thinking about what just happened and what could happen.

' _I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. Nothing happened. I'll be okay',_ with that a trickle of tear flowed down her cheek.

And even though she tried to convince herself that she was okay, she didn't know that she wasn't. Physically, there was nothing wrong with her, but emotionally, she had been scarred and somehow her (almost) friendly personality would disappear and she would find it hard to trust other people who she didn't know.

 **. . .**

 _Meanwhile, in Japan, Atobe's residence, Keigo Atobe's room_

"What should _o_ _re-sama_ do to this practice menu? Seeing how ore-sama is the strongest, maybe ore-sama shall help his teammates to be as strong as ore-same."

 _Rrrr, rrrr, rrrringggg_

His cellphone vibrated and rang suddenly.

"Hello, Atobe speaking."

"Keigo dear! Aunt Rinko here."

"Hello Auntie, no long time no talk. So how can I help you?"

"Well, Ryoma is moving back to Japan next week, but Kevin can't follow her just yet as we still need to finalize the adoption. So can you help me to take care of Ryoma while she's in her school? Make sure she doesn't have any problem with fan boys or girls. She had quite the incident here."

' _The brat is moving here? Interesting…'_ Keigo thought before asking, "Sure Auntie, consider it done. Wait, what incident?"

So Rinko started to describe the unfortunate incident that befell Ryoma.

Keigo Atobe was very close to the Ryoma brat even from young. They were childhood friends (besides being cousins) and Ryoma would always follow Keigo and Ryoga around, cutely he might add. He really loved Ryoma, in a cousin-like way, and wanted to protect Ryoma from anything. After the call, even Keigo who only heard about it, was enraged. _'Someone dared to harm my cousin? You're messing with the wrong family! I'll make sure nothing else happens to her ever again.'_

* * *

1 _chibisuke: shorty, short kid, or little child. A call of endearment from Ryoga to Ryoma_

2 _oyaji: old man. Ryoma's way of calling her dad_

3 _ore-sama: very arrogant way to say 'I' or 'me'._

 _So that's it guys. What do you think? Is it any good?  
_ Rate and review please

xxx

violetperiwinkle


	2. 2: First encounter

Hi guys, I'm back! Here's chapter 2, but **there are some things to take note of.**

 **1\. I'm making this into a RyoFuji fanfic instead of RyoTez (sorry to disappoint any RyoTez fans, because I think the story would go smoother and nicer if its RyoFuji)**

 **2\. Ryoma is 15, she is enrolling to senior high school instead of junior high.**

 **3\. The romance in this story would be quite slow. As in, Fuji wouldn't fall in love with Ryoma until a later chapter. So if you're looking for quick fluff, this is not what you're looking for. I hope you guys are fine with me taking things slower.**

 _Thank you so much for the support that you have shown me. Do continue to give rate and review as well as opinions about the story. Because your words really mean a lot and they do help me gain confidence cause I'm really new to this whole writing thing!  
_ _Enjoy chapter 2!_

"..." This is normal conversation

 _'...' This is a thought_

* * *

Chapter 2

 _Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan. Saturday 8am_

' _So this is Japan…_ '

A pair of brilliant hazel eyes was looking around to absorb the scenery in front of the owner. The hustling and bustling of the city, with people talking on the phones while walking at a very brisk pace, were all in front of her. She would usually find it mesmerizing, but with all the events happening lately, her eyes seemed a bit empty. There wasn't the usual shine in her eyes.

' _Would the same thing happen to me again? Tsk, whatever'_ She did not want to think of the horrible things that happened to her and instead pushed the thought aside, trying to suppress it to be way down to the back of her brain.

"Chibisuke, hurry up! Our taxi's here."

And with that, her thought was broken. She made her way to the boy calling her along with the perverted looking monk behind him. All three of them got into the taxi and off they went to their new home.

"Help us unpack, Chibisuke!" Ryoga commanded her.

"I'm bored, I'm going out to Atobe's house!"

"Oi! We are unpacking and you are gonna go out? What part of we need some help don't you understand?"

"Lifting things are guys' job."

"Don't be a sexist! C'mon, give us some help. You can lift the lighter things like the clothes, or the tennis rackets, or the – OI! COME BACK HERE CHIBISUKE!" Ryoga shouted when he saw Ryoma grabbing her red jacket and went out the door.

"Honestly, this girl…" He sighed and got back to work, before shouting, "JUST COME BACK BEFORE DINNER!"

 **. . .**

Fuji Syusuke had always been the center of attention anywhere he went. His entrance was always accompanied with a strong presence. He was definitely more than blessed to have such a charismatic presence and charming look.

Fuji had a set of cerulean blue orbs that never stopped mesmerising people. His eyes were simply entrancing. They held the mysterious allure that charmed people to continue to hold their gazes. His golden brown hair shined brightly under the sun, it was a casual jumble sometimes but mostly neat and flowing.

It was not a wonder that, in school, he was the most popular boy due to his intelligence, – after all he is the _tensai_ of Seigaku not for nothing – his handsome face, and his tennis, both skills and body (due to Tezuka being a strict captain who loved assigning laps and Inui with his crazy intense training menu and juice).

Don't get him wrong, it wasn't as if he _attempted_ to be popular or anything, it was just in him that he turned heads around when he walked. And Tezuka probably attracted the same amount of attention as him, but Fuji was much, much friendlier. Tezuka always ignored his fan girls, which was probably why the girls loved to stick to Fuji more. He actually responded to them. Fuji was not a player of any chance, but why reject all the **free** _bentos_ and chocolate everyday. But he did reject all the confessions made to him, after all why would he be in a relationship if he weren't ready to commit?

And today, Fuji Syusuke was bored out of his wit. He had nothing to do at all and he had no one to bother. His sister was at work due to some emergency situation and his younger brother, Yuuta, was in his boarding school. He had woken up at 7.30am today and had been cooped up in the house doing nothing for almost 3 hours now. He tried watching TV, but there was nothing interesting that caught his eyes. He tried reading books, but got bored halfway. He was pacing around his room now when his eyes set upon his camera.

' _Saaa… I haven't been taking pictures for a while now. I probably should go out and take some interesting pictures. Or if I get lucky, I'll find some blackmail materials.'_ His eyes glinted mischievously.

Changing into a simple shirt and pants, he put on his shoes and set out of his house.

 **. . .**

 _A busy street in Tokyo_

Fuji was in a busy street of Tokyo where people were swarming around, all walking in a fast pace, not bothering with other activities except their own. He, on the other hand, was just there to pass time and enjoy a perfectly pleasant Saturday. He was strolling with his camera on his face in case any interesting scene decided to catch his eyes. He was capturing pictures of children playing near a park when his phone rang. He put down his camera, stuffed it in the bag, and answered the phone.

"Yes, _nee-chan_?

"I'm in Ginza park right now, trying to capture an interesting picture."

"Well, I was just bored," he explained, while walking toward a bench in the park, "I don't know what time I'll be done, I can come home before – "

"AH!"

He bumped into someone's shoulder and felt something cold on his arm.

"Nee-chan, I'll have to call you back." He ended his call and looked at the person he bumped into.

" _Gomen_ , are you okay?"

It was a girl, by the look of her height was probably 4 to 5 years younger than him, with a dark-green hair being tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a navy blue top along with a red jacket and a white short that fell slightly below mid-thigh. She looked quite beautiful, he might say.

"Tsk, you made me dropped my ice cream."

" _Gomenasai,_ but are you fine?" he asked while cleaning his full-of-ice cream arm with his handkerchief.

"I'm fine, but I haven't eaten my ice cream yet."

By this time, Fuji was a bit shocked. Usually, any girl who met Fuji would immediately be captivated with him and would, well, flirt with him. But this girl seemed to be more concerned with her fallen ice cream than talking to him.

"Do you want me to buy you another ice cream?" he offered while pointing to a nearby ice cream stand, "It's the least I can do to compensate for it."

" _Mada mada dane,_ that was a gelato that I bought from a café. Whatever, it's okay, I'm full anyway. Just watch out ahead when you're walking next time"

Fuji was definitely surprised to see this girl not only rejected his offer but also left him standing there. His curiosity was definitely piqued.

 _'Saa… Interesting… I hope we meet again.'_

 **. . .**

 _Atobe's residence_

Ryoma was kind of in a bad mood that someone had bumped into her and made her dropped her ice cream.

"Monkey King, you wouldn't believe what happened today." she marched right into his room. She saw him on his bed reading some papers.

"Ryo-chan!" Atobe got up of his bed to welcome Ryoma by tackling her into a big hug, "I finally see you."

"Get off me, monkey king! And don't call me Ryo-chan, it's embarrassing"

"C'mon I miss you a lot and you didn't even reply to my last letter. I almost send a search party in case you have gone missing okay!"

"Well, I was busy packing and moving out. And please, LET ME GO!"

"Aww don't you miss me too?"

"Okay, okay stop glaring at me like that. So, to what do I owe the pleasure for you to come here?"

Atobe felt extremely comfortable with Ryoma. They were very close friends, cousins, etc – after all they spent their childhood together and practically grew up next to each other. Atobe was one of the few people that Ryoma actually bothered to keep contact with during her time in the US (through letters of course, Ryoma hated any other means of contact if it was long distance communication). Coming from a really wealthy family, it was really hard to find friends who would see him without all his riches and power.

Ryoma, on the other hand, came from a fairly wealthy family – with Nanjiro used to be a tennis superstar and Rinko being a famous lawyer across US and Japan. But she was different. She was used to seeing things that money can buy, but she actually didn't care about wealth or money. She really saw Atobe for who he was and she was the only one who dared to treat him any way she wanted. She was one of the few people whom Atobe did not show his arrogant and boastful personality. He never referred himself as _ore-sama_ or bragged anything about him in front of her because she already knew his true self. He really loved this cousin of his and even was a little overprotective toward her (not as extreme as her brother or dad anyway).

And his beloved cousin was now telling a summary of what had happened to her today and was in a sulky mood.

" … believe that? Are you even listening to me? OI!"

"Huh? What? Sorry, my mind wandered off."

"…"

"C'mon Ryomaaa, don't give me the silent treatment. Don't sulk pleaseee. I'll buy you your favourite racket grip."

"…"

"How about your favourite racket grip and string?"

"Fine, but I want an ice cream as well. Somebody made me dropped my ice cream when I was on the way here." Her tone suddenly became cheerful like a kid getting her favourite candy.

Atobe couldn't help but sweatdropped looking at his cousin's behavior, but since he loved Ryoma so much, he couldn't help but agree her every reasonable demand (asking him to shave off his hair because he lost a game to her when they were in the US for holiday was definitely not reasonable!)

"Fine, let's go. Stop calling me monkey king please!"

"No can do, but thanks monkey king!"

 **. . .**

 _In a gelato and ice cream cafe_

"So, how was the US and US Open?"

"Nothing much."

"How about the final?"

"Well, it was slightly harder, but it wasn't like I couldn't win. I mean, _aniki_ and _oyaji_ did play against me everyday in the US not for nothing. But it was quite boring really, and the fans were getting annoying. They even chased me to my school and I had to hide every single day if I want to live a single day…" Ryoma continued talking about her days in the US while Atobe just enjoyed listening to Ryoma talked.

"So, what about the fanboy incident that Auntie Rinko told me about?"

Upon this, Ryoma visibly tensed up, went silent and gave him a glare instead. He immediately knew it was an off-limit topic. Atobe realised that even though Ryoma didn't say anything to her family about this issue, but he could see that deep down the near-rape incident definitely affected her, although he didn't know how yet. But mark his word, he would find out, even if he had to force it out of her.

' _Ryoma, I hope you're really fine._ '

* * *

Tensai: Genius

Nee-chan: Older sister

Gomenasai: I'm sorry

Gomen: A shorter version to say "I'm sorry"

Mada mada dane: 'No, not yet' or 'not good enough' (Ryoma's favourite phrase)

Aniki: Older brother (Ryoma's way of calling Ryoga)

Oyaji: Old man (Ryoma's way of calling her dad)

* * *

So that's it guys! How was it?

 **Please rate and review because it would really encourage me since I'm really new to this whole writing thing!**

* * *

xxx,

violetperiwinkle


	3. 3: I am not a damsel in distress!

Chapter 3: I am not a damsel in distress

Hey guys, I'm back with chapter 3!

 **Important thing:** _I think my story will have a lot of RyoAtobe fluff before going to RyoFuji fluff, as the romance in the story will be a bit slow. And for the misunderstanding and misconception part, it would take a few more chapters before all of that happen. So bear with me guys!_

Big thanks for people who review my stories! Love you guys so much for being so encouraging and all! They really help to boost my confidence! Do continue to give review to help me improve!

Disclaimer: POT is not mine, sighpie.

* * *

 _Rrr… rrr…rrrr_

A phone vibrated in a bed for a few minutes before the owner decided to leave whatever he was reading and picked it up.

"Atobe speaking"

"Hi Keigo, how are you doing? Am I bothering you right now?"

"Rinko-basan! No, of course not."

"Have you met with Ryoma-chan yet?"

"Oh, she just went home a few hours ago. She came to the house a few days ago and we went to get ice cream. And she's been coming here almost every day now. "

"Oh my, I'm sorry if Ryo-chan caused you any trouble, you know – "

"Ba-san, you know Ryoma is never a trouble for me."

"Fufufu, that's true, you two had been inseparable when you were younger," Rinko chuckled as if she's remembering the good old days, "Anyway, I'm here to ask you how she is faring there."

"Well, since she hasn't started school yet, so I guess she's just bored. There isn't much for her to do except play tennis with me, Ryoga-nii, or Nanjiro-jisan. But that's not why you are calling me isn't it? You can always Ryoga-nii or Nanjiro-jisan if you want to check on her."

"You know me very well, Keigo dear. I'm actually calling to remind you about the favour I asked of you the other day because Kevin and I are stuck here longer than we had anticipated due to unforeseen circumstances."

"About protecting Ryoma, right? Don't worry ba-san, you don't even have to remind me about it. I would put my Atobe pride on the line and protect her with all I've got. I would never let anything like that happen to her again."

"I know you will. But would you mind making sure she have more protection around her?"

"Of course, I plan to hire bodyguards to follow her. And I'm considering a transfer from Hyotei to Seigaku since I know Jiro-jisan won't allow Ryoma to come to Hyotei."

"Oh my, it's too much of a sacrifice for you. Besides, I don't know if Ryo-chan will agree to it."

"I'll make sure she agrees, ba-san. I'm Atobe Keigo not for nothing."

"I knew I could count on you. Thank you so much Keigo."

' _Even if I have to sacrifice a few things, like my precious tennis team, I will protect you Ryoma. I'll make sure, nothing of that incident sort will happen to you ever again."_ Atobe vowed putting his Atobe pride on the line for this.

 **. . .**

 _The next morning at Echizen's residence_

Echizen Ryoma was NOT a weak girl who needed any protection of any sort. She could jolly well take care of herself and she had been doing it well enough for the past 15 years of her life, until that incident happened of course.

She had managed to escape from the clutch of crazy fanboys and fangirls in school all her middle-school life.  
She had survived persistent – to the point of being annoying– reporters digging for her personal life information and invading her privacy.  
She had managed to beat some sense to some very overly stupid boys who had tried to corner her and harm her back when she was still in the 8th grade (after all, she didn't learn martial art of self-defense not for nothing. And her muscles gained from tennis just added some extra weight to the punches and kicks she delivered to them, leading the boys to end up in a hospital for days, no big deal).  
She had even successfully 'chased away' (read: beat up) any harm or danger coming to her way taking the form of overly-courageous boys who still tried to do lewd things to her (she could see it from their eyes, and this is why she hated being a girl) even though the news of her beating up some boys had travelled faster than a bush fire.  
She had been protecting herself well enough, at least according to her.

The last incident was a stupid mistake on her part for trusting a stranger so quickly. But she had learnt her lesson. So was this whole Keigo-will-be-protecting-you thing really necessary?

"For the last time, I DO NOT need that monkey king nor any of his bodyguard to be tailing me every hour of my time in school! It's even worse that those crazy paparazzi! I am not an imbecile who cannot do things on her own!" She was beyond frustrated with her family. Her dad and her older brother she could understand, but her mum? She could not believe that her mum was in on this as well.

"But chibisuke, what if the same thing happened to you again? Kevin is still stuck in the US and he isn't there to help you in school anymore. That is why we asked for Keigo's help." Her older brother insisted.

She glared hard at the both of them. Not that she mind having Keigo around, especially that she's in a new school, but the idea of Keigo transferring school for her did not sit in well with her. First of all, Keigo could and would be overly protective of her and she did not even want to think about what kind of ideas he was storing for her. Second, and more importantly, she knew Keigo was the captain of Hyotei and he loved his team. She would not be the cause of him separating from his team. _And who would she challenge in a match if Keigo were in the same team as she was?_

"NO! I AM NOT HAVING KEIGO TRANSFER TO SEIGAKU, AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"See honey, I knew Ryoma wouldn't agree with this," Nanjiro sighed while talking to Rinko on the phone, which was on loudspeaker mode.

"Fine, Ryo-chan. We will trust you for now," Rinko's voice could be heard through the phone, "But that doesn't mean we would not have Kei coming to your school once in a while or escorting you to school. Do we have a deal?"

"But mum, I don't think its enough protection for – " Ryoga whined before promptly shutting his mouth up, seeing her little sister's glare toward him.

Ryoma really hated the idea of Keigo wrecking havoc in her school because she knew Keigo would do everything in his crazy ore-sama style, like bringing a limo to pick her up or mocking her school in front of everyone. He would be calling attention toward him and embarrassing Ryoma, and she already had a headache thinking about the possibility. But that idea was infinitely better than having him transferring school for her.

"Fine," she sighed before pouting her lips to show her oyaji and aniki that she was indeed sulking.

"That's good then. I have to go very soon for Kevin's case. I'll see the three of you soon enough. Bye." And the phone was hung up.

"C'mon chibisuke, don't sulk. We are only doing this for your own good. I'll treat you to some cakes in that new cafe after this."

"After all, we do not want any boys to be doing any perverted things toward you." Her father chirped in.

"Baka oyaji, not every one is perverted like you! And okay, let's go tomorrow, Ryoga-nii. Right now, I need to have a talk with a certain monkey-king. Oh and maybe you could prepare for his funeral as well." And she left the living room to change clothes and leave for Atobe's house.

Hearing this, Ryoga sighed, he was so not ready to say goodbye to his wallet. But it was worth it if it could erase that pout from his dearest little sister's face.

 **. . .**

Ryoma hated the fact that she was stuck with very protective males in her family (that included Kevin as well). She guessed she was lucky that she managed to convince her parents that she did not need Atobe to transfer to her school, which started next Monday, and got stuck with him checking up on her once in a while. But she definitely needed to lay some ground rules to him in case he decided to go all-out on his usual bragging and flaunting money in front of her schoolmates.

She barged into Atobe's room only to find it empty.

"Where is Atobe right now?" she asked a maid who was passing by.

"Ah Ryoma-hime, Keigo-bocchama is probably in the swimming pool. He told us not to let anyone disturb him."

Ryoma hated the fact that all of Atobe's maids and butlers kept calling her hime-sama or Ryoma-hime. She was NOT a princess. She had tried to make them called her with a more normal name, but obviously the maids and butlers wouldn't listen, something about Keigo-bocchama's order. She was sure, that monkey king did it just to irritate the hell out of her – and she couldn't blame him for trying to get his revenge after what she did to his precious hair. Atobe seemed pretty determined to never forget that or let Ryoma lived it down.

"Hnn, I'll be heading there then." Ryoma decided and headed toward the pool.

She saw her cousin relaxing on a huge sofa by the pool – ' _typical Atobe, being ridiculous, like why do you a need a sofa by the pool!'_ – reading some paper with tiny printings and a drink and some cakes on the side table. She had no idea what his cousin might be doing right now, but either way it didn't matter because Ryoma came here to give him a piece of her mind.

"Oi monkey king!"

"Why hello cousin dearest. Would you like to join me in sunbathing?" With that he got up from his sofa and walked toward Ryoma to give her a hug. It had always been some sort of habit that they developed when they were younger that Atobe would always hug Ryoma whenever they meet, and Ryoma was always more willing to be hugged when there was no one around. If there were people, she would usually put up more resistance but Atobe always got his way in the end. He dragged her to his sofa where Ryoma sat in front of him while she was still in his grasp.

"You know why I'm here! Let me go, I need to talk to you!" She fumed to him.

"Do enlighten me." He chuckled at his cousin's behavior, but let her go from his hug.

"Don't play jokes with me! Why did you agree to kaa-san's request? I told you before that I DO NOT need any protection from you, nii-san or anybody else. I am not a damsel in distress for heaven's sake. And I would not let – "

"Ryoma-chan, you know I'm just concerned about your well-being. No one should ever have the chance to harm my dearest cousin."

"But I have been doing well without any of your help. And what is it that I hear that you are transferring to Seigaku? I know how much you love Hyotei and your tennis team. I do not want you to listen to kaa-san's request!"

Upon hearing this, he knew his cousin thought he was being forced to transfer by her mother, and she was simply worried for his well-being. His face turned soft, but serious as he grasped her shoulder and made her listen to him.

"Ryoma, listen to me. I love my tennis team and my school very much, but I love you much more. I do not want you to get hurt at all, which is why I am more than willing to transfer to Seigaku if it meant you are out of harm's way. I would blame myself if you get hurt in any way. The transfer was my idea, not Rinko-ba-san's"

Ryoma was speechless to hear this. She knew that the males of her family would always be over-protective, but Atobe did not make it sound that he was protecting her because she was some baby that couldn't do things on her own. He made it sound that he would truly held himself responsible if she had gotten hurt, and she definitely did not want that. So she guessed she was fine with him being over-protective, after all, it ran in the family.

She was so touched by Atobe's concern that she finally moved in closer to give him a kiss on the cheek to show her gratitude. The said heir of Atobe was a bit shocked to see Ryoma did that. Throughout his 17 years of life, he could count the times Ryoma actually gave him a kiss or even hugged him first with one hand, but he was content nonetheless. He hugged her again. So now he could count the times Ryoma kissed or hugged him with two hands, yeay!

"Thank you, Kei," she mumbled in his chest before pulling herself away and looked at him seriously again, "But you are still not transferring to Seigaku. I talked to mum about this and she agreed!"

"But Ryoma, I thought – "

"Mum said you can still visit me from time to time to check up on me, but you are not moving from Hyotei. That's what I agreed on. End of discussion, Kei!"

* * *

 _oba-san / ba-san: aunt_

 _okaa-san / kaa-san: mum_

* * *

A/N: I think I will write a flashback chapter soon, about Atobe and Ryoma's childhood. What do you think guys? Do you want a flashback chapter?

Please rate and review, pretty please with the cherry on top!

xxx,

violetperiwinkle


	4. 4: Seigaku

Chapter 4: Seigaku's Princess

Yeay I'm back with chapter 4! I'm trying hard to make the fem Ryoma not OOC. It is quite hard actually cause I want to give depth to her character as a girl, but Ryoma is always so cool. So for now, I'm just trying to explain why Ryoma is acting cool even though she's a girl in this story. Because of the Ryoma's hurt and not trusting part, thats why she started not to care, which people see as cool. I hope that makes sense. Conflict conflict, sighpie.

Anyway, I want to thank you for the reviewers for the overwhelming support. Thank you so much guys! Love you guys a lot!

 _Things to note:_

 _1\. Please note the difference between Ryoma's "Hn" and "Hnnn". "Hn" is for a lazy reply of "Yes", while "Hnnn" is more like "Hmmm" where she is thinking._

 _2\. Ryoma will usually call Atobe "monkey king" if Atobe is in front of Ryoma and there are people around. But most of the time, if they are alone or on the phone, Ryoma will call him "Kei". Then again, I am not very specific about this, I'm just gonna type whatever nicknames I feel Ryoma should call Atobe at the given situation. Oh well!_

Disclaimer: POT is not mine. Wish it was though.

Enjoy chapter 4! Pardon all the mistakes, and you can always tell me about the mistakes and I'll try to fix them!

* * *

 _And there, she saw the timid boy, smiling evilly in front of her._

 _"Call for help please, I'm not feeling so well,"_

 _"There's no one to help you now."_

 _He started to grope Ryoma in all places and she could feel her clothes being ripped opened. She could feel the butterfly kisses he was giving around her collarbone. She felt utterly disgusted and tears were forming in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She would never let him see her weak side despite knowing the despicable things he was going to do to her and just blocked out all the pain._

" _Stop, please…" her voice was weak and a stubborn tear escaped her right eye._

" _Please…"_

 _She could feel a cloth put on her mouth and face and she started to have difficulties breathing. Her breath was becoming shorter and shallower. She saw darkness started surrounding her, and she felt her body gave up. She no longer wanted to stay awake to experience the pain. She surrendered herself to the darkness, and stopped breathing._

 **. . .**

Ryoma woke up with a jolt and ragged breathing. When she tried to open her eyes, all she saw was black and she could feel a fur-like thing covering her face. She could feel her pajamas drenched in sweats and her right cheek wet by a tear. It took her a while to calm herself down, before she tried to move her body.

The fur-like thing covering her face seemed to have disappeared suddenly, and when she opened her eyes, she could see she was in her bedroom and saw the fur-like thing on the floor.

"Karupin! Don't snuggle on my face again, okay?"

The said cat merely resumed her disturbed sleep because of her master sudden jolt. She checked her clock and saw it was only 5.38am and she still had more than an hour before her alarm clock rang. She decided to go back to sleep and lay down on her bed.

She kept telling herself that the incident was over _a_ _month ago_ and refused to think about it during the day. She did not want to deal with such things. However, there were bound to be some thoughts that escaped to her mind, especially at nights or the crack of dawn when she had nothing else to do but to think about it.

Ryoma was having _that_ nightmare again. It was a stupid, annoying one because it was as if she was there all over again. She could feel the pain and the disgusted feeling, and all of them felt real. The worst thing was her mind seemed to exaggerate the dream every time and she always woke up feeling worse than the previous night. She had been having this dream for a whole month now, but she refused to tell anyone. She was Echizen Ryoma, and her pride would not allow her to confide in other people for such a 'trivial' matter.

Ryoma was changing. The change was not physical. But the incident scarred her and her mental well-being, thus her personality.

She was definitely not as trusting as before. In the first place, Ryoma was not the most sociable person on earth, and this incident gave her all the more reasons not to trust other people so easily. She had learnt that the hard way. Not everyone was as nice as they seemed to be and she became even more wary of them. She disliked meeting new people and wanted nothing to do with them. She knew her current family (including the Atobes) cared for her, and she trusted them. And for her, her family was more than enough. She was simply scared to put her trust on other people. But Ryoma would not be Ryoma if she knew about the scared part, she simply convinced herself that she was merely taking precautions.

She had decided not to be bothered by other people's businesses because if she did, she would revert back to her usual self who actually cared about them, especially those whom she knew or those who were in trouble.

Deciding that she was thinking too much about it and seeing how she could not go back to sleep, she got up, walked to the bathroom and hoped that a shower would help clear her mind off a few things.

 **. . .**

"Eh, Ryoma? It's only 6.30am. Good morning though!"

Nanako was beyond surprised to see her cousin to be awake so early. But she saw the haggard look hanging on Ryoma's face and decided not to press the matter when her cousin did not give any response. "Ba-san said that since this is your first day of school, we would be having Japanese breakfast."

"Morning nee-san, _oyaji._ Thanks nee-san." She replied sleepily and sat on the chair.

Her father put down his _newspaper_ (aka perverted magazine) and said, "Oi Ryoma, don't forget today is also the day of registration for the tennis team. That old hag agreed to talk to the principal to let you play in the boys' team," before resuming his activity once more.

"Hn."

"Oh, Kei called yesterday that he is picking you up this morning and he will send you to school." Nanako told Ryoma.

Upon hearing this, Ryoma scowled. She knew that monkey king would use a limousine and she definitely did not need to attract any attention in her first day of school. She knew if she gained the attention of the student body, they would probably start minding her business. And she definitely did not want people poking their noses into her life.

"Nee-san, I'm just going to leave for school now. Tell Atobe to just go ahead to his school without me." She grabbed her school bag and tennis bag, put on her shoes and left for school.

 **. . .**

 _Seigaku High School, Tennis courts_

 _Ring… riingg… rrriinngggg_

A phone rang in a certain _buchou_ 's bag, before the said owner picked it up.

"Tezuka here."

"Tezuka, it's Fuji. I'm calling to tell you that I can't come for morning practice today. My sister accidentally fell down the stairs and twisted her ankle. I need to bring her to the hospital."

"Noted," and he hung up the phone before yelling out, "Stop slacking off. Everyone, 10 laps now!"

 **. . .**

Ryoma arrived at school too early for her liking. She could have slept a bit more if Karupin had not disturbed her sleep. On the bright side, the school was still quite empty and there were only a few people there.

 _Rrr… rrr… rrr…_

Her phone vibrated in her skirt pocket and she picked it up without looking the caller id as she had an idea who it might be.

"RYOMA! How could you leave without me!" Atobe's voice was heard on the phone.

"I just felt like it."

"Ryoma," he growled, "I told you I'll send you off to school! Why did you leave so early? Do you know how much trouble I need to do ... " he continued ranting but Ryoma did not even bother to listen. She put his phone a little further from her ears and simply waited until the noises coming from her phone seemed to stop.

"Well, Kei, I know you would send a limo to me and I do not want to attract any attention today."

"Of course I'll send you a limo. I don't have any other car besides that!"

"But you'll probably send the most expensive and luxurious limo to show off!"

"…"

"I knew it! Whatever Kei, I need to go now."

"Ah! Before you hang up, I'm not picking you up today. I have tennis practice after school. But I will send a limo to your school later."

"NO KEI! I'm going home by myself. You either let me go home by myself or I'll tell Ryoko-ba-san that you're the one who broke her precious Ming dynasty vase."

"And I can simply tell Rinko-ba-san that you are the one who accidentally spilled paint to her Chanel bag. And I'll tell her that you are refusing my protection." Atobe retorted back.

"You won't dare!"

"You know I will Ryo-chan."

"Fine, but you will send your smallest limo here and you tell the chauffeur to park it a mile away from school. And don't call me Ryo-chan!" and she hung up.

Half pissed off that Atobe won this time, – she rarely lost an argument with him (she's a girl after all) – she wandered around her school ground, trying to find the tennis courts.

It took her a while since she was quite bad with directions. After some time, she found the tennis courts. It was filled with students and buzzing with noise. Such a contrast with the general school environment.

' _Hnnn, they already started morning practice on the first day of school.'_

She decided to linger around and observed what her would be tennis team was capable off. She found a good spot under the sakura tree and leaned on it. She saw the whole entire team running around the track, except for an older-looking man wearing glasses.

' _He must be the coach. But I thought Seigaku's coach is oyaji's former coach. Oh well.'_

Her eyes wandered to the people running on the track now. In the front were six boys wearing blue and white jacket followed by a slightly big gap and then followed by a lot of other boys wearing their sports uniform.

In the most front were a red-head boy that was hyperactive and another boy who kept yelling, "BURNING! C'MON BABY!"

While behind them were a bandana guy and porcupine head guy, they seemed to be fighting and trying to tear each other's head off.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY _MAMUSHI_?"

"FSHHH!"

And then there was a weird looking man with thick spectacles and he was writing down furiously while mumbling something.

' _Seigaku's full of weird people,'_ Ryoma decided before realising that it was time to head back since it was near the time school started. She left her spot and walked back to the main building to find her class.

 **. . .**

 _Class 1-A_

Ryoma entered her classroom and immediately felt the stares directed to her. The people in her class immediately broke into whispers as they were shocked to see such a beautiful and cute girl standing in front of them. Ryoma did not seem bothered by it and went to the seat at the most end of the class. She put her bag down and was ready to fall asleep, when a hand shot out in front of her face.

"Hello! I'm Osakada Tomoka! And who might you be? You are so pretty!", a loud mouth girl spoke to her.

"Ano.. Tomoka-chan, I think she's annoyed with you." Another girl with auburn pigtailed braids said timidly.

"But why Sakuno? I'm just trying to introduce myself. She's so pretty oh my goodness. Her hair looks so nice and her eyes sparkled blablabla" the Tomoka girl seemed to be ranting in her own world.

"Ano... I'm sorry for my friend's behaviour. My name is Ryuzaki Sakuno."

"I'm Echizen Ryoma. Your friend is kind of loud." she said to her.

"Well, Tomoka-chan is always like that, Echizen-san. She gets excited easily and anoo.. she gets really excited if she sees a really pretty girl. Her mother owns a salon, that's why she likes to dress people up."

"Hnnn, anyway just call me Ryoma."

"Okay, Ryoma-san. You can call me Sakuno then."

"Hn"

"RYOMA-HIME! Imagine all the hairstyles I can make for you. KYAAA!" Tomoka squealed

' _Hime?! I AM NOT A PRINCESS! Damn Japanese people are crazier than Americans!'_

Ryoma was about to tell Tomoka off when the teacher walked in the class.

"Good morning, class!"

 **. . .**

 _Ding… Ding… Ding…_

The bell to show the end of school rang. And her first day of school was not bad, but it was not good either.

It was not bad because she got to doze off for the rest of the English class after she 'humiliated' her English teacher. The said teacher caught Ryoma sleeping and tried to humiliate her by making her answer the question on the board in front, which she answered effortlessly before throwing a comment, "Your accent is not bad either, _sensei_."

However, her day was not good because she disliked the after effects. She knew the boys in her class were already whispering about her when they first set their eyes on her in the morning. She, of course, paid little heed to those whispers. And after that little event, she gained the attention of her whole class and somehow she could see the boys in her class had that twinkling in their eyes, which was the same with what her fanboys had back in the US.

Words travelled fast about a certain freshman girl from the US who had the look of a goddess and was really fluent in English (Duh, she lived in the US before!). During break time, her class was filled with boys trying to get a glimpse of this said goddess. Ryoma was sleeping in her desk after eating her _bento_ from Nanako-nee. She looked absolutely innocent and adorable and many boys were falling head over heels for her, but of course Ryoma had no knowledge of this. While she was sleeping soundly, Tomoka took it to herself to be a good friend to her Ryoma-hime and chased away the boys and even asked them to stay quiet, even though her loud voice defeated her initial purpose.

And somehow before the school ended, these fanboys multiplied in numbers and were already forming a 'Ryoma-Hime Fanclub'. It wasn't just boys from her class, but also boys from other classes and even other levels. Not that she knew about this. She barely paid attention to her fanclub members unless it was to know their location so that she could run away from them.

' _Damn, I can't believe I already have fanboys on my first day of school and I haven't even played tennis yet. Tch, this is going to be troublesome.'_

* * *

 _Buchou_ : Captain

 _Mamushi_ : Viper

 _Sensei_ : Teacher

 _Bento:_ A Japanese-style packed lunch.

* * *

Done! How was it guys?

A/N: I know Tomoka seems a bit crazy for calling Ryoma hime, but I guess it was just in Tomoka's nature. But she WILL NOT LOVE Ryoma in a romantic way, I plan to put her and Sakuno as Ryoma's female friends!  
 **OH BTW** , Do tell me if you think I use too much Japanese words in my story and you think it's a bit hard to understand!

And the next chapter would be about Ryoma and the Arai incident!

 **Review for a free chocolate cookieeee ~**

 _x,  
_

 _violetperiwinkle_


	5. 5: The Super Freshman

Chapter 5: The Super Freshman

Sorry for taking quite long to update, but I'm finally back with chapter 5. This is the longest chapter I've written so far.

I don't have much to say except **big big big thank you to the kind reviewers and supporters!  
** _Thank you for the anonymous and guest reviewers also! Since I can't reply to your reviews, I'll say thank you so so so much here!_

Disclaimer: pot is not mine

Sorry for any mistake, and enjoy!

"..." This is normal conversation

 _'...' This is a thought_

'...' This is a text message

* * *

School was finally finished for the day and Ryoma changed to her tennis attire, which consisted of a shirt and shorts, with her hair in ponytail, as always – she found letting her hair loose was too troublesome.

She sent a quick text to her stupid monkey king of a cousin to make sure he would not do something out of line while making her way to the tennis court.

'Make sure your stupid limo waits for me in the park. IN THE PARK. I will not be responsible for your future injury if I find that thing in front my school, Kei.'

Nearing the court, she heard a boy with bright green shirt talking very loudly to two boys in PE uniform.

"What? How come you guys don't know? The regulars are in a meeting now to discuss the tournament coming soon. Hehe, with my two-years of tennis experience, I know everything. I'm telling you guys, I'm going to be a regular soon."

"Wow, Horio-kun! You're so cool! This is my first time playing tennis."

"Me too!"

Ryoma just stayed silent even though she doubted what that 'Horio-kun' boy was saying.

"And I will get to wear the regulars' jersey soon! I'm going to beat the other seniors and – "

"Well, well, what do we have here? A very arrogant freshman. Don't talk rubbish, you can't be a regular unless you are a junior!"

"Arai, chill down. They are still freshman after all."

"Wearing a regular's jersey soon huh? Let's have a match now and show me your skill, boy!" The Arai guy did not back down.

"AAH! I'm sorry, _senpai_."

"Now you're sorry huh? Well too bad, I'm in the mood of beating a very cocky freshman right now."

The Horio guy looked like he was going to faint, while the other two boys were trying to catch him.

Ryoma did not even bother with them and walked straight to the tennis courts to register.

"Oi girl! You're in the wrong court! Girls' tennis team is over there." The same Arai guy suddenly shouted while pointing to the girls' tennis team's courts far away.

Feeling addressed to (well, she was the only girl in the vicinity), Ryoma turned her head and said, "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes you! You're in the wrong area. Girls are not supposed to be here. And I'm still a senpai over here. Call me senpai!"

Ryoma simply ignored him and walked toward the courts.

"OI BRAT! What is up with the freshman this year? All of them are so cocky."

"I'm registering for the boys' team," she sighed already hating the ruckus this guy created.

"A short girl like you? Don't joke around. You are probably not strong enough for the girls' team," Arai snickered condescendingly.

Ryoma's vein popped on her head. Out of all the things people said, she hated being called short the most. She was NOT short, she was just slightly petite and a little bit below the average height.

"Mada mada dane, _senpai"_ Ryoma said while emphasizing the senpai part to mock him.

"WHAT! Do you want to play a game with me? I'll beat the crap out of you right now!"

"Oi, oi Arai, if buchou sees this, he will definitely get angry." The other senior said to him.

"I don't care. I'll show this little girl over here the fearsome Seigaku tennis."

"Hnn… Fearsome Seigaku tennis huh? Sure then, let's play." Ryoma accepted the challenge because he called her little again. She was definitely going to kill this guy. But before she even made it to the court, someone yelled,

"Arai, 20 laps! That's including you four freshmen!" And the spectacled guy, whom Ryoma thought was the coach, left the courts to go inside the school building.

"HAI!" Arai and the other guys left the freshmen alone and ran.

' _Damn, I'm going to get you back girl!'_

 **. . .**

Ryoma was finishing her laps and went to the bench where she left her bag and rackets, only to see the bench empty.

"What's wrong, girl? Are you so cocky to not even bring a racket to practice? If you're so confident about your skill, come face me now. You can use this." Arai threw an old looking racket made out of wood.

"What?! How can you even play with that junk!" Horio said in a loud voice.

"Not so confident are you now?"

Ryoma stared hard at her senior and walked to the court to show she accepted the challenge.

Ryoma had trouble controlling the racket in the first game. She had hit too hard that the ball went out of court or hit it with no control that the ball went to the net. Arai was so proud of himself that he was winning 40-0.

' _That's right, you are nothing! I'll show you my skill.'_ And he hit a forehand to the girl. When suddenly, the ball was returned with a faster speed to his court.

"Look, the girl returned the ball!"  
"The ball is fast!"  
"She's good!"

' _What? Impossible! You can't play with that old junk!'_

"WHY YOU! I'll humiliate you!" Arai served a fast serve to her.

 **. . .**

"Game, 4 games to love, Echizen Ryoma."

"Heh, this is the fearsome tennis, _senpai_?"

Arai mentally cursed the girl in front of him right now. He definitely would not lose to a freshman, who's a girl, with an old racket no less. He had wanted to show off his skills in case the regulars and the coach came back. He did NOT plan to be beaten 4 games by this little girl. He was panting hard right now after running around the court like a fool chasing the ball.

' _Damn, I'm going to get you back, girl!'_

"40-0" The referee called the score when Ryoma hit another fast backhand to the other side of the court where Arai was standing.

Ryoma was about to serve, when,

"WHAT'S GOING ON! Everyone, 20 laps now! After that, clean up the court! Practice ends here." An old lay in a pink jumpsuit, whom she knew was Ryuzaki-sensei, yelled to all the members.

"Arai, that's 50 laps for you, and give the girl her things back!" The captain ordered Arai.

"Hai buchou!" Arai left hurriedly to the clubroom and produced her bag in no less than thirty seconds and scurried off to run his laps.

' _Tch. If only that Arai guy could run that fast in the game just now, it would be more fun_.' Ryoma was annoyed that her game was stopped, but got ready to run the laps nonetheless.

"Except you Ryoma, come here," Ryuzaki-sensei called her, "I just talked to the principal and he had agreed to let you play in the boys' team considering your previous achievement. You are to enter the ranking match held next practice."

"Hai, sensei." She answered nonchalantly.

Tezuka studied at the girl in front of her carefully. He had heard of the name Echizen, from his tennis idol, Echizen Nanjiro. He was called 'Samurai Nanjiro' and became a pro that took the tennis world by storm. But he retired suddenly when he was one game away from taking the Grand Slam title. Tezuka could not believe that the one standing in front of him was the Samurai's child. He saw a little bit of the game she had with Arai and he had to admit that this girl got it in her to be one of the regulars. She managed to win 5 sets straight despite using an old racket. She would unquestionably be a good addition to the team, if she was truly the child of Echizen Nanjiro.

"This is Tezuka Kunimitsu, he is the captain of the team, Ryoma."

"Buchou." Ryoma said.

' _Oh, so he's not the coach but the captain instead. He looked kind of old. I knew Ryuzaki-sensei is still the coach, well, according to oyaji anyway,'_ she thought, but wisely didn't voice out her opinion.

Tezuka simply nodded.

"Alright Ryoma, you can leave practice for today. Make sure you are not late for the next practice." Ryuzaki-sensei told her.

"Hn."

Ryoma grunted and left the court, even though the rest were still running their laps.

Ryoma opened her phone and saw a text from her cousin,

'You know you love me Ryoma ;) And yes, I told the chauffeur to wait for you in the park. Come to my house when you're done with practice.'

She typed, 'Mada mada, monkey king.' And made her way to the limo, which was waiting in the park nearby. She hated the stares she got from people around her when they saw her entering the limo. Luckily, it was already evening and thus none of the Seigaku students were around. She did not want to think of the possibility if any of her so-called fans saw her.

 **. . .**

 _The next day at Seigaku, after school_

"Hoi Hoi, morning Fujiko! Are you heading toward practice? Oh oh, have you heard the latest gossips around?" A redhead bounced energetically toward Fuji before glomping him into a tight hug.

"Eiji! Don't do that." Behind him, Oishi looked worried.

"Fufufu," Fuji chuckled, "Morning to you too Eiji and Oishi. No, I wasn't around for school yesterday, remember? How was the meeting for regulars yesterday, Oishi?"

"The meeting went well, Fuji. I'll make sure you get the meeting minutes from Inui later." Oishi answered.

"You are missing so much stuff, nya!" Kikumaru exclaimed.

"Saa… you can tell me now then," the tensai of Seigaku said, still maintaining the smile on his face.

"There has been a lot of excitement in school this week, and its only the 2nd day of school. Did you hear about the freshman princess? I heard she is so pretty that she even has a fanclub dedicated to her already! I wanna see her, nya! Can we go during our break, Oishi?"

"But we can't. We have to meet the history teacher for our project, remember Eiji?"

"Nyaa, but I want to meet her. They say she has the look of a goddess."

"Saa… We'll meet her eventually, we have one whole year here, Eiji." Fuji said. He wasn't really interested in this 1st year princess girl because she was probably just another spoilt girl. He just wanted to calm Kikumaru down since people were staring at him for being too loud. Although, if the rumors were indeed true, Fuji would certainly not mind having her model for his picture. He loved to capture beautiful things, after all.

"You're right nya, but I wondered if she is really – AH! Momo, Kaidoh over here!"

"Good morning senpais!"

"Fshhh"

"I heard from Inui that a freshman beat Arai yesterday, nya!"

"What? A freshman?! Impossible senpai!" Momoshiro exclaimed

"99.9 percent that it is true. I have very reliable sources."

"NYAAA, INUI! Don't sneak up behind us like that!" Kikumaru jumped from his spot.

Everybody simply laughed at Kikumaru's antics before Fuji turned to Inui and asked,

"Are you sure it's a freshman, Inui?"

"90 percent it is a freshman, 7.5 percent it is a short second-year, and 2.5 percent it is a very very short third year."

Momoshiro was surprised, "I can't believe there is a freshman good enough to beat Arai."

"Not everyone is as lousy as you when you were freshman, fshhh." Kaidoh suddenly said.

"WHAT YOU WANT TO HAVE A GO MAMUSHI?"

"FSHHH!"

"Err guys, calm down. Don't fight, it's bad for the team. And people are staring even more." Oishi was worried like the usual mother hen that he was.

"Saa, but I think it will be interesting to meet this freshman."

 **. . .**

Ryoma was pissed off. Her day could not get any worse. Her fans suddenly multiplied in numbers and she was running out of patience to deal with these crazy fans of hers. She hated the fact that Kevin was not with her to help take care of these people.

When she arrived at school today, she was barely even awake when one boy came up to her squealing like a girl, "Guys, hime-sama has arrived!" What the hell was that about? She HATED being called a princess of any sort. And then it was followed by guys and girls forming a line to let her pass, shouting loudly,

"GOOD MORNING HIME-SAMA/HIME/RYOMA-HIME/RYOMA-CHAN"

She sweatdropped. She thought this kind of thing only happened in books and television shows where the students were stupid enough to go thiscrazy over a person. Apparently, Japanese students were just this crazy. She definitely missed the US, even the Americans were not this mad.

The rest of the day was just pure madness. During her break, she thought she could had a peaceful lunch in the canteen, when people started screaming when she stepped into the canteen,

"OH MY GOODNESS, ITS RYOMA-CHAN!"

"HIME, DO YOU WANT TO EAT MY BENTO I PREPARED FOR YOU?"

"DO YOU WANT TO GO ON A DATE TODAY?"

"NO, HIME-SAMA IS GOING TO THE MOVIES WITH ME."

She had to literally run from the canteen, leaving her bento behind, to get away from these people.

She finally found a good hiding spot in the rooftop since not many students went there. It was such a breezy afternoon that she thought a nap would be nice. She pulled her cap to shade her eyes from the glaring sun and closed her eyelids.

 **. . .**

"KYAA, SAKUNO SHE'S SO CUTE WHILE SLEEPING"

Ryoma was awoken by this loud squeal/scream and was definitely annoyed. She opened her eyes to see Sakuno and the loud-mouth friend of hers in front of her. It took her a while to realise that she was still in the rooftop.

"Ano, Ryoma-san, school is over now. We were worried when you didn't come back from the canteen."

"And you missed the whole afternoon lesson, Ryoma-hime!"

' _School's over? Oh shit!'_

"Sakuno, what time is it now?" Ryoma asked with a tinge of panic in her voice.

"Err, ano, it's 4.50pm now."

' _Damn I'm 20 minutes late for the practice match. Buchou and sensei is going to kill me!'_

"I have to go!" with that, Ryoma stood up and ran toward the door.

 _Meanwhile in the tennis court,_

"Nyaa, where is the freshman, Tezuka? He's late for practice and his match is in 10 minutes!" Kikumaru was curious as of why he did not see any freshman in the practice match.

"Maybe he overslept?" Momoshiro suggested.

"Baka, only you can do that."

"WHAT WAS THAT MAMUSHI?"

"Kaidoh, Momoshiro, 20 laps for being loud in the courts!" Tezuka barked and then fixed his glasses. He was definitely annoyed that the freshman girl was late for the practice match, and it was her first practice as well. No one should be late for practice for any reason! She was definitely going to get laps from him.

On the other hand, Tezuka did not bother to change the team's assumption that the freshman was a boy. He did not deem it to be important enough to tell the team. After all, it wasn't like it would disturb practice nor would it affect the team's welfare.

"40 percent he overslept, 50 percent he was called by his teacher, 10 percent he got into trouble," the data master said.

"Saaa… I guess we'll just see him later." Fuji said with the usual smile plastered on his face and walked to court A for his own match.

 **. . .**

Tezuka was observing the matches going on and kept watch in case any member of the team tried to act up or disturb the matches. He was now analyzing Fuji's match with one of the non-regular and was greatly disturbed that the gap level between a regular and non-regular was too much of. He definitely needed to increase the practice menu for these non-regulars. He also needed to ask Inui to help –

"Buchou, sorry I'm late."

A voice interrupted his thoughts and when he turned his head to the source of the voice, he saw the freshman girl looking relaxed and not guilty at all for being late.

"Why were you late, Echizen?"

"I saw a teacher carrying too many books so I offered to help him." Ryoma stated a very unconvincing (and stupid) lie, but she did not seem to be disturbed by it.

"LOOK LOOK! A GIRL IS TALKING TO TEZUKA!" Kikumaru's voice can be heard and he was definitely attraction attention to the both of them.

"DO YOU THINK IT'S A CONFESSION?" Momoshiro asked the regulars.

"Oh no, Tezuka can't divide his focus. The tournament is around the corner. This won't be good for the team, what do I do? As vice-captain I need to tell him to focus." Oishi worried excessively for the captain.

"SHE'S PRETTY NYA! Maybe she's the freshman princess!"

"She is quite pretty, Kikumaru-senpai!" Momoshiro quickly agreed.

"There is a 33.3 percent chance it is a confession. But she got guts to confess to Tezuka during practice. 100 percent it would be rejected though." Inui stated

The two did not seem to be perturbed by the noise around them.

Tezuka was scolding her, "Echizen, you know you can't be late for practice, especially ranking match."

At the same time, somebody yelled,

"Court D's next match, Echizen Ryoma versus Kiseki Renji."

"Go play your match first and run 20 laps after the match, no matter the result."

"Hai buchou." Ryoma calmly walked to the direction of court D while everyone's eyes follow her. They were wondering who she was and why she looked so calm for someone who just confessed to their captain and was probably rejected.

"Eiji, Inui, Momoshiro, Oishi, 30 laps for disturbing practice!" Tezuka yelled behind her.

 _In Court D,_

Kiseki Renji was waiting for this Echizen Ryoma to show up. He had heard that this was the freshman that beat Arai yesterday. He was curious to see the super freshman.

He saw a girl walked inside the court. He was confused as who the girl was and so was everyone else. They all stayed silent as they watched the girl walked over the other side of the court and stood there.

The girl suddenly spoke up, "Echizen Ryoma reporting for the match."

 _ **"EHHH?!"**_

* * *

That's it! What do you think? I know it's a bit slow for the plot to progress, but I'm trying my best hehe

 **A/N (or author's rant)** : I'm currently having some author's block. I think somehow my writing is deteriorating in quality. Uh oh. I hope it's just my feeling that my writing is getting suckier, but I can't seem to be content with the next chapter I'm currently writing. Sigh

I'll try to post the next chapter soon IF I'M SATISFIED WITH MY NEXT CHAPTER!

hugs and kisses,

 _violetperiwinkle_


	6. 6: A New Seigaku Regular

Chapter 6: A new regular for Seigaku

Finally back with chapter 6! And this is quite a fast update, since this chapter is quite short.

Thank you for all the kind reviewers once again!

A lot of you are asking where is Atobe, don't worry, he'll make an appearance soon. There isn't a lot of Atobe in this chapter though.

Enjoy the chapter!

Warnings: There's not a lot of fluff here

Disclaimer: POT is not mine

* * *

 _He saw a girl walked inside the court. He was confused as who the girl was and so was everyone else. They all stayed silent as they watched the girl walked over the other side of the court and stood there._

 _The girl suddenly spoke up, "Echizen Ryoma reporting for the match."_

" _EHHH?!"_

 _And that day, Tokyo experienced an earthquake with the magnitude of 8.3._

* * *

It was a fine day in Seigaku High School. The weather was cloudy, making it cool and breezy. The wind was blowing nicely. The birds were chirping and all was well… NOT!

"WHAT A GIRL?"

"NO WAY!"

"HAVE I LOST MY MIND?"

Everyone's eyes were basically bulging out of their sockets ready to pop out any second now, not believing the scene in front of them. How could a girl, a beautiful one at that, be standing inside the Seigaku's BOYS tennis team's court? There was surely a mistake of some sort.

The said girl simply stood there waiting for the rest to overcome their shocks. But they surely took their own sweet time to get over this fact.

"Ne, are we going to play, _senpai_?" she asked in a mocking tone.

There was no answer, or sound being made, at that question. Everyone was simply too entrenched to the scene in front of them and their brains were overheating trying to absorb this. They simply stood there dumbly.

Their eyes budged out even more, if that was possible, when their captain went inside the court and spoke out,

"Hurry and play the match. We are wasting training time."

3… 2… 1…

"USOOOOOO!"

"BUCHOU AGREED TO THIS!"

Everyone was simply shell-shocked. Their jaws were wide open and their eyes threatening to once again bulge out of their sockets. Fuji was the first one to recover from this situation. After all, there weren't a lot of things that could shock a genius too long.

"So, Echizen Ryoma is a girl, Tezuka? And this is the super freshman we've been hearing about?" He asked the captain.

"Aah," he answered affirmatively.

"NO WAY!" Momoshiro yelled loudly.

"You're too loud, baka."

"WHAT WAS THAT MAMUSHI!"

Momoshiro and Kaidoh went to another round of fighting despite the situation.

The next people to snap out of their shock were Kikumaru and Inui.

Inui was mumbling and writing at a very fast rate, "Iiee, data." While Kikumaru asked Tezuka again, "Is that even allowed for a girl to go to a boys' team, Tezuka?"

Ryuuzaki-sensei was the one who answered it, "I have asked the principal's permission as well as tennis' association, and they both allowed it."

"Why didn't you tell us she is a girl, Tezuka?" Kikumaru asked, "I can't believe this!"

"I see no reason to tell you. And it doesn't make a difference. Enough of this! Everyone 20 laps around school for disturbing practice. Court D, hurry and start your match." Tezuka ordered firmly.

"HAI BUCHOU" Everyone went to do their laps while Ryoma and her opponent went to start their match.

Meanwhile, Ryoma and this Kiseki guy were about to start their match.

"Which?" Ryoma asked while spinning her racket.

"Rough" Kiseki answered, and the racket fell with an inverted R.

"I'll let you serve first, girl. I can't believe I have to go against a girl."

"I suggest you don't underestimate your opponent."

She produced a ball from her pocket and jumped out to serve, with her racket on the right hand.

"15-0"

"Ne, Inui, isn't that a Twist Serve?" the tennis genius asked the data master who was running beside him.

"A quite polished one at that too." Inui replied while writing data in his book.

Kikumaru was excited to see the match, "Oishi, look, _ochibi_ seems to be a good player!"

"Ochibi, senpai?" Momoshiro asked

"My nickname for the girl. Hurry Oishi, let's finish our laps! I wanna watch the game!"

The regulars quickly finished their laps and went to court D to watch the ongoing match.

"Games, set and match, 6 games to love, Echizen Ryoma."

"Mada mada dane, senpai." Ryoma said with the emphasis on the senpai while walking to her side of the court.

"Oishiii, ochibi won the match so fast we couldn't see her match. HUAAAA" Kikumaru yelled.

"Ma ma, Eiji, we can still see her other matches."

"You're right Fuji! Sugoiii Ochibii!" and Kikumaru glomped onto the female freshman, "You're so good ochibi!"

"Can't… breathe… senpai"

"Eiji, you're choking her!" Oishi said worriedly.

"Ah, sorry sorry. I got too excited." He said and let go of the girl.

"Tch." She walked off the court to get some drinks.

"Oishi, our ochibi is so mean!"

After that, Echizen Ryoma won every game 6-0 straight against all the non-regulars and won both matches against the regulars, Inui and Momoshiro. That was how Ryoma earned herself a spot in the regulars.

 **. . .**

Fuji Syusuke was beyond shocked. The usual smiled plastered to his face wasn't seen at today's practice. He did not expect the girl that he bumped into before to be here in Seigaku. He remembered his curiosity was piqued because this girl was not charmed or even showed the slightest interest in him.

He had not expected to meet the girl in school simply because the girl did not look like her age. He remembered thinking that this girl was definitely 4 to 5 years younger from him due to her appearance (aka short).

And what he had not expected the most was that the girl was really good at her tennis. She was not one of those girls who only cared about shopping or appearances. If at all, she did not even seem to be bothered by them. Her skill at tennis was even better than half the regulars here. She would surely earn herself a place in the regular's team. He was certainly looking forward to practice with her. He was content to have her on his team.

Although, the said girl seemed to be very secretive about herself. She did not seem to be willing to open up to her teammates, even to the most cheerful Kikumaru. He was going to find out more about this girl who managed to pique his interest. It was going to be a challenge, but the genius never backed down from a challenge. After all, there are not a lot of things you could hide from the genius, Fuji. He would find out eventually, he had his ways. What Fuji wants, Fuji gets.

 **. . .**

 _After ranking matches ended,_

"Welcome to regulars, Ochibi!" Kikumaru hugged the girl tightly, "Yeay yeay we got a girl on our team!"

"Eiji!" Oishi warned his teammate to stop.

"BURNING! LETS CELEBRATE WITH ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI!" Kawamura yelled.

"YEAY LET'S GO!"

Ryoma thought her senpai-tachi were annoyingly too cheerful and loud for her taste, but she was glad that all of them accepted her into the team. She had not trusted her teammates yet because she would never want to taste the bitterness of betrayal, ever again. She wasn't going to open herself around them anytime soon. But at least, no one protested against her being in the team. At least she could finally play tennis again without any disturbance.

"Are you fine with sushi, Echizen?" Oishi's voice broke her train of thought.

"Ah! Sorry senpai-tachi, I can't go with you to the sushi place. I have business to attend to."

"EH WHYYYYY! OISHI, OCHIBI'S NOT GOING WITH US. HUAAA" Kikumaru started to shout.

But even before she got to answer the question, someone else beat her to it.

"Because this girl has to go with ore-sama today."

"EH ATOBE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN SEIGAKU!" The regulars were more than shocked to see Hyotei's captain in their school ground.

"Are you guys deaf? Ore-sama just said that he is picking up his princess." He answered while making his way to Ryoma and gave her a customary hug.

The said girl seemed to be annoyed by the hug and struggled to get out of his embrace. She did not like to be seen hugging Atobe in front of her people, after all. When her effort seemed to fail, she sighed and asked,

"Why are you here? I told you I can go home by myself."

"I told you I'm picking you up. Let's go home."

"USO! ECHIZEN/OCHIBI IS DATING ATOBE?!" All of the regulars screamed.

Kikumaru and Momoshiro were beyond horrified, "AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN LETS GO HOME! ARE YOU GUYS LIVING TOGETHER?!"

* * *

Words:

Sugoi: Awesome / Cool

Mada mada dane: no, not yet. English translation is "you still have lots to work on"

Ochibi: small kid

* * *

 **A/N:** That was a weird place to end the chapter, but i'm ending it here anyway.  
I think this chapter is actually quite clipped and crappy, to be honest.

hugs,

 _violetperiwinkle_


	7. 7: The King and the Princess

Chapter 7: The King and the Princess

Hi guys! This chapter contained AtobeRyoma interaction. I know a lot of you have been asking for Atobe to show up.  
Oh and I always imagine that Atobe would always have a warm parents-son relationship, even though they are rich and all. So yeah, no evil parents who don't care about him.

 **A/N:** Atobe Keigo is called Keigo-bocchama at home, while Keigo's dad is called Atobe-sama. In case you guys are confused reading the story.

Enjoy reading it and forgive any mistake, since I didn't get to edit it as much as other chapters! Don't want to keep you very kind readers waiting.

Disclaimer: POT doesn't belong to me.

* * *

 _USO! ECHIZEN/OCHIBI IS DATING ATOBE?!" All of the regulars screamed._

 _Kikumaru and Momoshiro were beyond horrified, "AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN LETS GO HOME! ARE YOU GUYS LIVING TOGETHER?!"_

* * *

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat with you common folks, but ore-sama here has to escort the princess home. Ciao."

And Atobe left dragging Ryoma with him.

The rest of the regulars were left flabbergasted and they were too shocked to move. They were trying to grasp what just happened in front of them. Having two heart-attacks in one day (except for Tezuka) was definitely not good for their health. And then they regained their lives and a lot of shouts were heard from the Seigaku regulars.

"Ochibi can't be dating Atobe!"

"BURNING! IMPOSSIBLE!"

"I can't believe Echizen with the Hyotei captain."

"Maybe they're not dating." Kaidoh stated.

"Baka mamushi! You saw them hugging just now!"

"Who are you calling baka, meathead?"

And the fight started again between the two second-year sophomores.

"Probability of Echizen dating Atobe is 85.8 percent."

"Shouldn't we follow them, nya? That's our ochibi Atobe's taking away!"

"They are too far away to be followed, Eiji." Oishi replied.

"The cause of us not being able to follow them 99.999 percent was because we were shocked too long to react."

"NOOO AS HER SENIORS, WE MUST SAVE OCHIBI NYAAA"

Throughout the whole ordeal, there were only two people who stayed quiet. The first one was Tezuka since it was Tezuka we're talking about. Although, Tezuka was worried for his _kohai_ since she now might be putting dating over practice. ' _I need to talk to her about this later.'_

The second one, however, was the genius of Seigaku, Fuji. He was seething inside. He just got interested with this girl and the said girl already got herself a boyfriend, an Atobe no less. There was unpleasant feelings stirring in his heart but he couldn't put a reason on it. He definitely did not feel happy the slightest bit when he saw them hugging and Atobe calling her 'princess'. He wrote it off thinking,

 _'It's probably because Echizen was dating Atobe, captain of Hyotei. Hyotei is our enemy after all. And I need to take care of my junior.'_

The other regulars were still having a fit over Ryoma and Atobe, when Tezuka suddenly shouted,

"Everyone, except Fuji, 60 laps around school. You guys are disturbing public peace!" He was getting a headache hearing the loud voices of his teammates.

With that, they all ran their laps and their 'save-ochibi-from-atobe-plan' went down the drain.

 **. . .**

 _In Atobe's limo_

"KEIIIII! WHY DID YOU COME TO MY SCHOOL!" Ryoma was pissed that Keigo had come to her school and made a scene with the regulars.

"I was simply checking up on you, Ryo-chan," Atobe winked at her, "And its fun to cause havoc in your team."

"Keii… Besides don't you have practice too?" Ryoma growled.

"It ended early today. So I came to pick you up. Calm down, there is no harm done."

"No harm done! You just shocked the hell out of my senpais-tachi and normally I would care less about it, but these people will definitely bother the hell out of me non-stop next practice. You know I don't want them to poke their noses in my business. ERGH, why can't I have a nice and quiet year with me just playing tennis? AND DO YOU HAVE TO CALL ME A PRINCESS IN FRONT OF THEM? They are so going to misunderstand." Ryoma rambled on.

"But Ryoma, why are so worried anyway? Remember how we used to prank people saying we are a couple. It's the same thing now."

"Imagine what my senpais would do to me tomorrow! They will surely bother me to no end! They'll drive me crazy!"

"Just tell them we're together or something. Besides this will stop any boy from getting near you."

"That's not the point, Kei. You will pay for this!"

Atobe gulped hearing her response. If there was one thing he knew not to do, it was to never anger any female member of his family, be it his mother, Aunt Rinko, Nanako-nee or Ryoma. Especially Ryoma. The problem with Ryoma was she knew too much of his secrets and could easily blackmail him with them. It wasn't as if Atobe did not have his fair share of Ryoma's secrets, it was just that Ryoma knew how to utilize her blackmailing skill better than he did.

"C'mon Ryo-chan, I'll buy you a whole month's worth of ice-cream."

If Atobe knew anything about his cousin, it was that Ryoma could most of the time (or always) be bribed by sweets. Her sweet tooth (or sweet teeth) was beyond any normal human being level. Her love for sweets, especially ice-cream, could placate her mood at any time, especially during those times of the month, ie PMS. And Atobe would do anything to make his cousin happy, or in his current case, less angry at him.

"Make it two months and I'll let this one slide."

"Fine, anything for the princess."

"Kei…"

"Okay, anything for my dearest cousin. So how was the team Ryo-chan?" He asked trying to divert Ryoma's attention (or anger) somewhere else.

"It was okay actually. I think Seigaku's full of weird and crazy people, but I'll manage."

"Are you having fun? You know you can always transfer to Hyotei with me," Atobe suggested.

"You know that baka oyaji will never let me transfer to Hyotei. Besides, didn't we talk about this before, Kei? I'm perfectly happy where I am, and so are you."

"I know, but it never hurt to persuade you again."

"Keigo-bocchama, Ryoma-hime, we have arrived at home." His chauffeur told them.

"Welcome home, Keigo-bocchama, Ryoma-sama." The head butler greeted them at the door, "Atobe-sama is requesting your presence, Keigo-bocchama. He is in his work room right now."

"C'mon let's head there, Ryoma."

Both of them walked toward the work room and went inside it, finding the older Atobe to be very seriously engrossed in his work.

"Dad, you requested for me?"

"Good evening, ji-chan."

"Ah, Ryoma-chan, you're here too!" He got up and went to hug Ryoma.

"So dad, why did you call?"

"Oh! You came at the right time Ryoma. I am thinking of hosting a surprise party for your mum's birthday, which is coming in a month. What do you think?"

"Well, ji-chan, no offense, but I don't think Ryoko-ba-san will be surprised since we do this every year."

The older Atobe laughed, "You're right Ryoma-chan. But it's always fun planning it, anyway."

Keigo grumbled, "It's fun for you because I am always the one planning it while you are just suggesting the idea."

"Now, now Keigo dear, don't be mean to daddy. Don't you want to do this for mommy? Ryoma-chan, you won't mind helping out, right?"

"Do I have to?" She asked, sounding reluctant. Any Atobes' party would always involve a lot of workload and require a more than fair amount of effort considering the size of parties the Atobes always hosted.

"Frankly, yes. You have no other choice now that you are here. Keigo does need some help with it, considering last year's party went the wrong way."

"Hey! It's not my fault that one of the guests had too much drink and crashed into the buffet table. I always plan perfect parties."

"So what do you say, Ryoma-chan? Can you help Kei out? Ryoko-ba-san will be happy." The older Atobe asked, playing the make-auntie-happy card to Ryoma, and pointedly ignoring whatever his son was saying.

"Fine, ji-san. Only because its for Ryoko-ba-chan and because Kei is not good enough to plan it alone."

"Atobe-sama, you have a meeting in 15 minutes." A butler came and told the older Atobe.

"Okay, I have to leave now, but Ryoma, stay for dinner please! Ryoko can't wait to see. I'll tell you parents about it. And I trust the both of you to do well, especially you Ryoma-chan. Please don't let Kei ruined the party." He chuckled while leaving the room.

"HEY!" Keigo protested but was, again, ignored.

"Hai, ji-san, I'll stay for dinner. C'mon let's go to your room, Kei."

 _Atobe Keigo's room_

"Kei, lend me clothes. I'm gonna take my shower now."

"Since when have you ever asked my permission, Ryoma?"

"I'm not asking for permission. I'm demanding." Ryoma answered while walking to the walk-in closet. She was skimming through Atobe's vast collection of clothes. Her eyes caught sight of the shirt that she had custom made from the US for him a few years ago. It was a simple purple tshirt with a monkey with a crown picture. She smirked and took that to the bathroom.

"So what do you think the theme should be this year, Kei?" She asked while walking out of the bathroom after 30 minutes, with hair still wet and towel hanging on her shoulder.

"Purple looks nice on you. Have you finally realised the beauty of purple?

"Nah. I just picked this t-shirt since it's one of the smallest ones there. Besides I quite like the design on it."

"Ha ha Ryoma. I remember chasing you around the room when I opened this present. And go dry your hair properly. You'll catch a cold walking around with your hair wet like that."

"Can you not sound like my mum, Kei?" She grumbled but followed his order anyway and used the hairdryer.

"What do you think of garden party as the theme?" Atobe asked while Ryoma was drying her hair.

"Hmm, not a bad idea. But didn't we do this a few years ago?"

"Now that you mention it, I think we did. Wait, lemme get the files of the past years plans." He said while walking out of the room to the files-storage room. After a while, Atobe walked in the room again, "You're right. We actually did an afternoon garden party with the theme 'Summer's paradise' 5 years ago."

"How about doing the party at night then? We can make the theme 'under the stars' or something." Ryoma suggested, while sitting on the bed with Atobe's laptop on her lap.

"That's not bad actually. Alright, let's make the proposal for dad."

"Okay, so what about the decoration and food?" Ryoma asked while typing the information down. She had always been the secretary whenever any planning was involved. Keigo talked too much to actually remember to write things down.

"We can hang cable lights and tie them between trees and we can hang star-shaped lights on the trees. You know, to make it to look like stars in the sky. How about purple as general colour scheme?"

"A BIG NO KEI. Just because you like purple does not mean it would look good on anything. But I like the lights idea"

"Yes it will!"

"NO. How about midnight blue and yellow? Just like the night sky and stars."

"That works too. Although purple will look nice as well."

"How about the list of guests? We need to compile a list of people ba-san will want to invite. And ji-san's list as well. They definitely will have some business partners to invite."

So the two continued discussing about the party for hours. Well, it took hours because Keigo and Ryoma debated about a lot of things. They didn't even realise that it was almost 7pm.

"For the last time, Kei, an inflatable pool does not fit the general theme."

"But its an outdoor party! It would be nice to swim around outdoor."

"The party's at night, Kei! It would be too cold for the guests! "

"Keigo-bocchama, Ryoma-hime, it's dinner time. Both Atobe-sama are downstairs already."

Their debate was interrupted by one of the maid calling them for dinner.

"Let's eat, Kei." Ryoma said and walked off to the dining room, followed by Atobe behind.

Upon reaching, they saw that both Keigo's parents were already sitting down next to each other on one side of the table. The table itself was filled with a wide array of the finest food, looking very lavish and sumptuous, as usual for the Atobes.

"Ryoma-chan! How nice is it to finally see you here!" Ryoko exclaimed happily and went to hug Ryoma before sitting down again. "So, how is school so far?"

"Well, it's actually fine. Except for the fact that Kei here came to school and gave everyone a shock of their lives."

"Now now Ryoma-chan, you know its for your own safety. Rinko told me everything." Ryoko said to her.

"Kei could always be more discreet."

"There is no such thing as discreet in my dictionary, Ryoma. Why would I bother to hide my magnificent presence?" Keigo countered back.

"But still!"

Dinner went on with small talks and occasional insults exchange between Ryoma and Keigo to the amusement of both of Keigo's parents. They simply shook their head while smiling since they got used to the children's behavior. Keigo and Ryoma always argue over the smallest of thing. They ended up having 1.5 hour for dinner because of the non-stop arguments between the two.

"Ryoma, it's almost 9pm now. Why don't you stay over here tonight? I'm sure Keigo can escort you to school tomorrow." Ryoko suggested.

"I'll have to tell ka-san though."

"Don't worry, I already informed her when I told her you were staying for dinner."

"But I haven't even agreed on staying over yet!"

"Ryoma, you do realise there is no way that you can refuse, right? You always stay over anyway."

"Hai, ba-san." Ryoma replied since she knew there was no point in arguing with her aunt. Her aunt would always get what she wanted. She was happy to spend more time with the Atobes anyway.

"I knew you would agree!"

And they continued talking for another half an hour before both of Atobe's parents were called for a business conference call.

"Okay, let's go up to the room now Ryoma. Mum, dad, if you would excuse us." Keigo said after a while.

"Good night Auntie, Uncle." Ryoma gave both of them a quick hug before following Keigo to his room.

 _Atobe's room_

Both of them continued to plan the party until it was quite late. Ryoma was feeling tired from all the matches she had and yawned.

Atobe, noticing this, said, "Go to sleep, Ryoma. You're tired already. I'll save this document first."

"Hn." Ryoma replied while walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth and prepare for sleep, while Atobe followed her after saving the work.

Ryoma settled in Atobe's king sized bed and quickly dozed off. Atobe and Ryoma always slept together on the same bed whenever Ryoma stayed over to his house or vice versa. It had always been a habit ever since they were young.

 **. . .**

 _Flashback_

 _6 years old Keigo was on his bed reading a storybook while waiting for sleep to descend upon him. It was raining heavily outside with loud thunders roaring. But since Keigo was a brave little boy, he wasn't bothered by it. Keigo was on the verge of sleep when little Ryoma walked into his room, crying. Keigo was instantly alert, and hurried up to Ryoma's side and hugged her._

" _What's wrong, Ryo-chan?"_

" _Keikei, I'm scared. The thunders are so loud." She said in between the sobs while clutching tightly to Keigo's shirt._

" _There, there. There is nothing to be afraid of." He tried to soothe his dearest cousin while leading her to his bed. He cradled her into his arm, all the while stroking her hair, and said, "The rain will be over soon, Ryo-chan."_

" _But, I can't sleep."_

" _You can sleep with me today, Ryo-chan."_

" _I can?" She asked with her wide and bright eyes sparkling._

" _Yes you can."_

" _Yeay! Tell me a bedtime story, Keikei! Ka-san always does this."_

" _Okay. Once upon a time, in a land far far away…" Keigo started telling the story that he often heard from his mother about a princess being rescued by a prince from her deep slumber. "… And they lived happily ever after. How was it, Ryo-chan?"_

 _Upon hearing no response, he looked at his cousin – she was already asleep peacefully. Keigo was sleepy as well. He tucked in some loose hair behind her ear and tucked her into the blanket carefully and went to sleep as well._

 _End of flashback_

* * *

How do you find the interaction between Atobe and Ryoma? And the flashback at the end?  
 _And no, Atobe nor Ryoma does not like each other more than cousins. They are just very very close cousins_.

Next chapter will be about the Seigaku regulars' reactions and Atobe dropping off to Seigaku, again!

kisses,

 _violetperiwinkle_


	8. 8-1: Rumours and Consequences

Chapter 8 - Part 1: Rumours and Consequences

I can't express more thanks to the nice readers and reviewers for the support. I was so excited that I didn't realise I wrote a very long chapter this time, it hit the 3k+ marks wow. (Somehow I'm always excited?) So I decided to divide it into two parts, since it'll be a very long chapter if not.

Disclaimer: i can only wish pot is mine

* * *

 _Ringggggg… Ringggggg…._

The alarm clock on the side table kept on ringing until a hand shot up from the bed and hit the snooze button. The owner of the hand snuggled more into the familiar warmth and went back to sleep.

…

"…chama, hime-sama, wake up! You have school." A sound woke her up from her peaceful sleep, "It's 6am already."

"WHAT!" Her eyes shot open and she jumped from the bed only to be held down by an arm belonging to none other than her cousin, Atobe Keigo.

"Kei, wake up! We're late for school!" She peeled her cousin's arm off her and tried shaking her cousin to wake him up from his slumber. "C'mon Kei, don't be stubborn! Wake up!" This time she pushed him with more force. But Keigo remained undisturbed.

Frustrated, she looked to the head butler and told him quietly, "Bring me a pail of cold water!" And when the butler came back with the water, Ryoma quickly took the pail and dumped it on Atobe.

The said boy instantly woke up and shouted, "AH! WHO DARED DO THIS TO ORE-SAMA!" before realising it was his own cousin who did this, "RYOMA!"

"It's not my fault you wouldn't wake up. Now hurry, we only have 30 minutes before we need to leave!" She said while running to the bathroom down the hall since the bathroom inside the room would be used by her cousin.

 _20 minutes later_

"Kei, are you done? Hurry up!" she shouted from outside the bathroom door his cousin currently in.

"5 more minutes. I have to look absolutely perfect and perfection needs time," came the reply from the door.

"I'm going down for breakfast first. Meet you downstairs!"

Ryoma went to the dining room and ate her Japanese breakfast happily. The staffs in Atobes' house already knew the young mistress loved Japanese food for breakfast and always served it whenever she was around. Ryoma was halfway done with her food when her cousin walked in, a frown on his face.

"I do not appreciate being woken up by cold water, brat!"

"It's not my fault you won't wake up, monkey king. Now hurry up and eat your breakfast. I can't be late for morning practice."

"If its Tezuka you're worried about, don't worry. I can handle him." Keigo replied while eating his breakfast with deliberate slowness to annoy her. Besides, he had been raised to always eat his meals in the dining room and to eat with gracefulness and table manners. It wasn't his fault that he was finishing later than his cousin, she started eating first, so of course she would finish first.

Seeing at the pace her cousin was eating, Ryoma knew her cousin was trying to get back at her for his special wake up call. She was irritated with this, she definitely did not want to be late for morning practice. Her buchou would assign her crazy amount of laps and she did not like running those laps, especially in the morning. "Kei, hurry up!"

"Okay, okay! I'm done. C'mon let's get into the car." He stood up and took his bag from his head butler.

"Have a good day at school, Keigo-bocchama, Ryoma-hime."

 _In the limo_

"Argh, I'm so going to be late for practice. This is all your fault, monkey king!" Ryoma started calling her cousin with monkey king whenever she was annoyed with him. "If I have to run laps, you're going to get it later!"

"Now, now, it's not my fault you dumped iced water on my face this morning. It wasn't exactly the nicest way to be woken up, you know?"

"What does have to do with you eating your breakfast at a pace slower than a turtle?"

"Well, my brain didn't wake up properly and it needed more time to wake up, so everything I did would be slow."

"You're not making any sense!"

Their debate was cut short when the chauffeur told them, "Hime-sama, we have arrived at your school."

"SHIT! KEI, DIDN'T I TELL YOU I NEVER WANT TO BE SEEN IN YOUR LIMO, EVER!" Ryoma forgot to tell the chauffeur to stop near the park he usually picked her up from because of her debate with her cousin, "ARGH THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, MONKEY KING. I CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT MY SCHOOLMATES WILL SAY WHEN THEY SEE THIS."

"Ryoma, watch your language. You are a lady above any thing else, act like one. And you were the one who didn't tell the chauffeur! Besides, it's a smaller limo than usual, Ryoma. They won't react so badly."

However, true to her words, even without knowing who was inside the limo, there was already a number of students gathering near the limo looking at it with such awe.

Ryoma, already had a feeling that she was going to land herself into more troubles, grumbled, "You're coming down with me and you will escort me to the tennis courts. I am not in the mood to be swarmed by students fanning over the limo."

"And your fanboys and fangirls who would no doubt swarmed you even more after this." Atobe teased his cousin.

His cousin only muttered a string of curses before dragging Atobe down from the limo.

The moment she stepped out of the limo with Atobe on her side, the crowd went crazy, as expected.

"OMG, ITS RYOMA-HIME WHO'S IN THE LIMO?"

"MAYBE SHE'S A REAL PRINCESS!"

"AS EXPECTED FROM YOU, RYOMA-CHAN-HIME!"

"KYAAA, HIME-SAMA, I LOVE YOU MORE!"

Ryoma grabbed Atobe by the wrist and quickly fled the scene to the tennis courts. She knew that even though her fans would follow her there, they were scared enough of Tezuka to not enter the courts and disturb practice. She saw her captain standing near the entrance door and quickly ran there and apologized.

"Sorry I'm late buchou!"

There was a silence that befell the whole tennis courts. It wasn't because Ryoma was late for morning practice since there were regulars who were always late for morning practices as well, namely Momoshiro and Kikumaru. But what they could not believe was the person Ryoma was holding hands (or wrists) with. They could not believe that the Hyotei captain was there in their morning practice.

"USO!"

"RYOMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH ATOBE?"

"OCHIBI, ARE YOU REALLY DATING ATOBE!"

"WHAT THE HELL ATOBE!"

"ECHIZEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?!"

Ryoma was instantly bombarded with onslaught of questions by the Seigaku regulars. It was even worse than the squeals of her fans.

' _Damn I forgot about the seniors!'_

She totally forgot about her ever-nosy seniors. She didn't mean to bring Kei here and made a scene. She should have known they would totally blow this out of proportion. She hated her seniors for being too annoying and making her morning even worse. At this rate, they wouldn't be having any morning practice. She looked at her captain with an urgent and almost pleading look, as if saying 'Do something, buchou'.

Tezuka, being the strict, stoic captain, didn't get her message but was also annoyed that the morning practice was disturbed.

"Everyone 10 laps around school now! Ryoma, 20 for being late. And Atobe, if you would kindly get out of the courts now. You are disturbing practice."

The whole Seigaku regulars grumbled but ran their laps anyway, all the while saying, "I can't believe buchou is not interested with Ryoma and Atobe dating" and "Buchou is getting meaner, we didn't do anything."

Atobe, himself, was talking to Tezuka. "It was ore-sama's fault Ryoma was late today, Tezuka. And of course it was also the fault of ore-sama's fans who kept getting in our way of getting to the tennis courts. Anyway, ore-sama shall take his leave now."

Tezuka could feel a headache coming up due to his first-year regular. She was already causing so many problems and it was only the 2nd practice she attended. "Ryoma, Atobe explained it already. Run 10 laps instead." He cut down her number by half.

"Thanks buchou." She replied and ran her laps. She was grateful her captain did something to distract her seniors so they wouldn't ask her so many questions. She then went on to practice with Kawamura-senpai.

After morning practice ended, Ryoma immediately scurried away to her classroom to avoid her senpais.

* * *

TBC for part 2.

 _Part 2 has Atobe in it too!_

 **A/N:** I write Ryoma as someone who still has her mischievous side (with Atobe and iced water) hehe

hugs and kisses,  
 _violetperiwinkle_


	9. 8-2: (More) Rumours and Consequences

Chapter 8 Part 2: (More) Rumours and Consequences

Here's the part 2 guys!

 **A/N: It is still the same day as the one with part 1. So no timeline change.**

* * *

 _"Thanks buchou." She replied and ran her laps. She was grateful her captain did something to distract her seniors so they wouldn't ask her so many questions. She then went on to practice with Kawamura-senpai._

 _After morning practice ended, Ryoma immediately scurried away to her classroom to avoid her senpais._

* * *

 _In Class 1-A,_

' _Finally got away from those senpais. Now I can get some peace and –'_

"KYAA RYOMA-SAMA, ARE YOU REALLY A PRINCESS?"

"SO FITTING OF YOU RYOMA-HIME"

"SHE GOT DOWN FROM A LIMO"

"HIME SAMAA"

' _Crap'_

Her fangirls and fanboys were squealing like crazy and somehow their numbers were three times more than usual. Just when she thought she could get some peace and quiet. She groaned inwardly. She was about to stop her fans when,

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP! If you want to disturb Ryoma-hime, you should go through me, the president of Ryoma-sama fan club!" Tomoka yelled to the crowd. And never before had she been so grateful to the loud-mouthed girl in front of her, although she hated the fanclub thing. Like since when did she have a fanclub and Tomoka being the president?! But at least, that stopped all the squealings.

On the bad side, the whole limo thing was totally blown out of proportion by her fans and gossips that she was a real princess and that she was dating a handsome prince (aka Atobe) spread like a wildfire. The number of her fans instantly increased.

The teacher finally walked in and stopped the ruckus and ordered all the students to go back to their respective classrooms.

 **. . .**

There was 15 more minutes until English class ended for lunch break, and for the first time, Ryoma was completely wide awake at the last 15 minutes of the class. Usually she would just sleep through the whole class. She slept for the first 45 minutes and suddenly woke up and stared into the board. Didn't mean she was paying attention though. She was on her own world, doing some thinking.

' _How do I get out of senpais' annoying questions and the fans as well? … I need a hiding place… Where can I hide? Maybe the rooftop! ... But what if – … Damn, was that the bell? I need to run now.'_

Ryoma went straight for the door to run away from her seniors and fans and rushed to the stairs that could access the rooftop. But, alas, not even one step she took when one of her senpais found her.

"There you are Ryoma. We all have been looking for you."

"Ah, Fuji-senpai."

"Saa… where are you going, Echizen-chan? Aren't you going to have lunch with the regulars as usual?" He asked with his creepy you-will-get-it-if-you-don't-follow-me smile.

' _Echizen-chan? It sounds so horrible.'_ Ryoma wondered but dismissed the thought, "Eerr, yes, I was going to."

"But the cafeteria is the other way."

"Eerr, ano, I, err, was going to … the toilet! Yes, I was going to the toilet first!"

"Okay, I'll escort you to the toilet and then we can go together to the cafeteria."

She sighed and simply walked to the cafeteria.

"Aren't you going to the toilet, Echizen-chan?"

"Please just call me Ryoma, Fuji-senpai. My name sounds so weird when you said it. And no, I suddenly don't want to go to the toilet anymore."

"Saa, okay then, Ryoma-chan. Let's go." He answered while walking with her to the cafeteria. Fuji somehow felt content when he called her by her first name. It felt right on his tongue. "Ryoma-chan…" he tried it again.

"Yes, Fuji-senpai?" She stopped and turned to him.

"Nothing. Let's go."

Ryoma gave her an incredulous look, not believing what her senpai was saying, but followed her senpai nonetheless.

When they reached the cafeteria, the regulars' table was filled with the usual noises. Momoshiro and Kaidoh were fighting, as usual. The third years, except for Tezuka, were still chatting loudly about the morning event. They were way more than curious about Atobe and their ochibi dating.

"Ochibi!" Kikumaru went to glomp the first year.

"breathe… senpai…"

"Eiji! She needs air!" Oishi reprimanded Kikumaru slightly.

"Mengo, mengo, I forgot you're a girl sometimes."

"By the way, Echizen, are you really dating Atobe?" Momoshiro asked.

"Ya, ochibi, is it true, nya?"

"78.8 percent you are really dating Atobe."

"Isn't that bad? Ochibi, don't date Atobe, nya!"

"Atobe is not good for you!"

"Baka idiot, how do you know that?"

"Whatwasthat? Youwannafight?"

"Fshhh… Bringitonyouidiot"

Fuji slipped a racket to Kawamura's hand, just to add the fun. "BURNING! NO GOOD ECHIZEN, YOU CAN'T DATE ATOBE, BABY!"

"66.7 percent that Atobe is a bad influence for Echizen, both for tennis and mental well being."

"Oh no, shouldn't we do something, Tezuka?" Oishi asked worriedly.

Ryoma knew this was coming, but she was getting annoyed with all the incessant questions. And she knew her captain wouldn't interfere this time because this wasn't practice time. It wasn't like she hated the fact people were assuming she was dating Atobe. If anything, it really helped her get some of her fanboys away from her. She didn't get random confessions as often ever since the gossip spread that she was dating the almighty prince charming from Hyotei. But her senpais' worries were beyond normal level and it was bloody annoying. Add to the fact that her senpais were badmouthing her cousin. As annoying her cousin was, only she had the right to say something bad about him. She was ready to blow off any moment now.

"You know senpais, curiousity kills the cat." She replied.

"SO ITS TRUE!"

"NYAA OISHI, OCHIBI IS SO MEAN! MUST BE ATOBE'S INFLUENCE"

"NO ECHIZEN, BURNINGGG!"

The uproar continued for quite a while, and Ryoma was getting more and more ticked off.

"What a scene. Ore-sama would never allow his team to cause this much of a disturbance, right Kabaji?" A voice Ryoma would definitely recognized anywhere was suddenly heard. She groaned even more at her predicament.

"Usu"

And silence reigned once more through the regulars.

"Monkey king! What are you doing here!" Ryoma scowled upon seeing her cousin with Kabaji walking through the cafeteria. Why the hell was Keigo here? Didn't he have his own classes and school? Why did he even go here? She grabbed her cousin and dragged him to a farther spot away from the regulars.

"Checking on you of course, dear princess." He answered, knowing it would irritate his cousin.

Ryoma scowled even more, " . .Kei?" She was completely annoyed and was more than ready to slaughter her cousin and some of the Seigaku regulars.

"Like I said, I'm checking on you. And I want to see how you are doing in school."

"I do not need you to check on me every time. We will talk about this at home later!" She yelled, louder than she intended. She was sure the regulars heard that.

On the background, the Seigaku regulars suddenly sprang to life and started to make loud noises about how Atobe was here in enemy's territory. But the two cousins ignored the noises

"Don't be angry Ryo-chan. You know its Rinko-ba-san's order."

"I'm pretty sure ka-san did not ask you to show up in my school during lunch time, Kei."

"Anyway, I'm picking you up after school. I know you don't have afternoon practice today."

"Yadda! I'm walking home!"

"Are you sure you want to do that after the whole fiasco this morning? I'm pretty sure your fans are lining up to swarm you after school."

"I hate it when you are right, Kei." She pouted her lips and sulked.

"C'mon don't sulk Ryoma. I mean, people already know you have a limo, so what could get worse?"

"It's YOUR limo for your information!"

"You could easily get one as well."

"There's a reason why I did not get one, Kei!"

"Okay okay, don't be so angry, Ryo-chan."

"Don't be so angry! How can I not be angry? You made me seen with a limo this morning. You came here uninvited and unannounced. Do you know how much trouble I'm getting because people think that you are dating me!" She ranted.

"You know, any other girl would be happy if they were thought dating me."

"I am not any other girl, Kei!"

"Okay, okay. I mean isn't it good that they think you have a boyfriend? It would surely decrease the number of confessions you are getting, right?"

"Yes, I know. But do you know how much more trouble I get from my nosy senpais!"

"Just let them assume on their own. I mean this whole thing will blow off, eventually."

"You really think so, Kei? I really hate all the attention from senpais. They shouldn't meddle with my business." She asked, calming down a little now.

"I know so. Anyway I'm going to leave now. Take care, Ryo-chan. Be careful of the boys in your school." He gave her a quick hug and walked away.

"Ore-sama shall take his leave now. Be awed by ore-sama's generosity to grace his presence here." He announced, to whom nobody knew, before looking at Tezuka, "Tezuka" and then left.

"Don't think this is over! I will get you back!" Ryoma yelled.

"That was interesting. Now, Ryoma-chan, is there anything you would want to tell us? Fuji inquired.

"Iiee… Data..." Inui was writing down the event that just occurred.

"ECHIZEN WHAT WAS THAT, NYA?"

"ECHIZEN, TELL US!"

' _That's it!'_

It was the last straw that she could handle. She finally exploded, "There's nothing to tell, senpai-tachi. Stop prying into my business, senpais!" And walked away from the cafeteria.

' _Thank God there is no afternoon practice today. One more day with these senpais and I will go crazy for sure.'_

"Nya, Oishi, did ochibi just shouted at us?"

"I think she's angry."

"99.9 percent she's angry. 93.4 percent she's angry at us."

"It's your fault, baka Momoshiro!"

"What was that, mamushi?! It's your fault too!"

And away from the brawl happening,

"Ne, Tezuka, shouldn't we do something?"

"The regulars went out of line with her business, Fuji. She has her right to keep her private life, private. They shouldn't have asked too many questions. Rumors or not."

Fuji Syusuke was definitely not thrilled with the event that just happened. He wasn't happy that Atobe went out to see Ryoma and the last hug he gave her made his inside felt a little boiled. And he was not delighted that Ryoma had refused to answer her seniors' questions. He knew the regulars went out of line just now, forcing her to reveal her business. He understood why she was angry. But it didn't mean he didn't want to know it too. He would surely uncover the truth, even without the help of Tezuka. After all, no one could keep a secret from Fuji, the tensai.

* * *

Finally done with this chapter. Sorry I had to divide into two since the chapter was too long and I needed to break them so I can focus on the editing for both of them.

And I've realised that a lot of you are saying that the previous chapter is too short. I'll try to make it up by writing a longer chapter for the next one okay :)

Anyway, did I mention next chapter **the Hyotei regulars will meet the princess of Seigaku?** xxx, **  
**

 _violetperiwinkle_


	10. 9: The King's team meets the Princess

Chapter 9: The King's team meets the Princess

* * *

I'm back and since a lot of you are thinking the last chapters were too short, I'm making it up with this chapter. This chapter has 4k+ words guys, that's like **double** of my usual writing. Enjoy it!

 **Important to note:**

1\. I'm no longer following the canon. So a lot of scenes will be happening at my own pace. But I'm going to put in some of the original scenes as well (like preliminaries and district tournament and all), for you guys to gaugge the timeline.

2\. Fuji is the only one who called her Ryoma-chan, so far. Kikumaru called her ochibi, and he sometimes added "nyaa" to his sentence. The rest called her Echizen, including Momoshiro (because he did in the anime). In case any of you get confused in the conversation with the regulars.

 **Please read this!  
** **A/N:** I'm planning on making a new story with FemAtobe this time. It was a suggestion from sierrafujoshiakut. I'm still thinking of the plot of the story. Pairing would either be Sanada or Tezuka. Do give me your suggestion for this story. Do you guys like the idea?

Disclaimer: pot is not mine

* * *

"Do I have to do this, Ryuzaki-sensei? Why can't you send someone else to do this errand?" Ryoma sighed, obviously very reluctant to oblige her coach's order. She was called into the teachers' lounge by her coach after morning practice was done for that day.

"Yes, you are the most familiar with the captain. So it's easiest for you to communicate with them."

"But still, even Horio can do this without a problem."

"Just do it, Ryoma."

"Fine."

"Good, I already told Tezuka and Oishi you would be missing practice for this."

Ryoma sighed. It wasn't that the errand Ryuzaki-sensei gave her was difficult. In fact, it didn't need much effort to execute. Ryuzaki-sensei had asked Ryoma to deliver some very important documents to Sakaki-sensei, the coach of Hyotei Gakuen tennis team. But it was just very troublesome to make her way there and meet her cousin at _his_ territory.

She knew her cousin's tennis team was almost as, if not more, unruly and noisy as her own team. If her senpais could already cause so much trouble with Atobe coming here, she did not want to know what trouble Hyotei could cause with her coming there. That, and she did not want to waste her time to go there. She had better things to do like practice her tennis. What kind of reason was 'because she was the most familiar with the captain. So it's easiest for you to communicate with them'? Any other 2nd or 3rd year member of the Seigaku tennis team would surely be familiar enough with the Hyotei's team. Furthermore, Ryuzaki-sensei could easily gave Sasaki-sensei's number so any one who was sent out to do the errand could contact him. But since it was an order from her coach, she guessed she had to do it. She had no legitimate reason to say no.

She bowed to Ryuzaki-sensei and left the teachers' lounge. She sent a text to her cousin,

'I'm going to your school this afternoon. Coach asked me to hand something for your coach.'

And then she walked to her class. Upon reaching, her phone in her pocket vibrated, indicating that there was a text coming in. She opened it and it was a reply from Keigo.

'Can't wait to see you! How about I send you the limo today?'

'It's okay Kei. I can use the train, it would be too troublesome for the chauffeur after I had said he didn't need to pick me up yesterday.'

' _Curse my luck._ ' She let out a loud sigh. The day before, she had finally managed to convince her cousin that she did not need a limo every single day to get her to and from school ever since the commotion she created when the school people saw her in a limo. She would take the train and she would text him if she ever needed a limo (she highly doubted she ever needed one). Not that it changed the fact that her fans kept growing in numbers. At the least, she would avoid more students gawking at her cousin's limo every morning.

She had just told the chauffeur yesterday evening that she did not need any pick up from school anymore, and now she needed to go to Hyotei. It wasn't as if Hyotei was very far away from her school, but her sense of direction simply sucked. And her cousin's limo would surely make it easier for her since she just needed to sit there and let the chauffeur to take her to Hyotei. She could receive her cousin's offer on sending the limo again, but she felt bad for the chauffeur.

' _Oh well, I would manage, I guess.'_

 **. . .**

 _After school_

School had ended for the day and it was time for Ryoma to go to Hyotei. She quickly packed her bag and left for the train station. She was reaching the gate when suddenly she was jumped onto by none other than Kikumaru, with Fuji behind him.

"Ochibiii! Where are you going?"

"Kikumaru-senpai, let me go!"

"Not unless you tell me where you are going!"

"Echizen, don't we have afternoon practice?" Momoshiro asked. Momoshiro was walking toward them as well. He was curious as of why his teammates were gathering near the school gate instead of going to the tennis courts.

"78.23 percent she is going to skip practice today."

"Inui-senpai, you have to stop showing up unexpectedly like that!" Momoshiro jumped because of the sudden appearance of Inui.

"Iiee data…" The 2nd year sophomore sweat dropped.

"Saa… You know its bad to skip practice, Ryoma-chan." Fuji advised his kohai.

"So ochibiii, where are you going nyaa? Tell us, tell us."

"It's none of your business, senpais." She answered curtly.

"Fujikooooo, ochibi is so mean to us!" Eiji wailed loudly.

"C'mon don't be such a brat, tell your senpais Echizen!" Momoshiro chimed in.

"I wish senpai-tachi would just back off my business." Ryoma murmured in a low tone. But alas, it did not escape Fuji's sharp hearing.

"What was that, Ryoma-chan?"

"Nothing, senpai."

"So where are you going to, Ryoma-chan?"

Seeing that there was no escaping her senpai-tachi this time, she decided to answer the question so she could get back to do her errand.

"I'm going to Hyotei Gakuen."

"EHHH WHYY DO YOU NEED TO GO THERE OCHIBI!"

"ARE YOU MEETING ATOBE THERE? I KNEW IT! YOU ARE REALLY DATING HIM!"

"Iie data…"

"It's not for that, senpai." Ryoma replied but it seemed to fall on deaf ears since her seniors, once again, were being in their drama queen mode.

"ECHIZEN, DON'T GO THERE!"

"FUJIKO TELL HER SHE CAN'T GO THERE, NYAAA" Kikumaru was bugging Fuji, thus diverting Fuji's attention

Seeing how much commotion her senpais are causing and that no one seemed to pay attention to her, she slipped away unnoticed and went her way to the train station. It was only 15 minutes later when the regulars noticed their junior wasn't there anymore.

"EH WHERE DID ECHIZEN GO!"

"AND WE'RE LATE FOR PRACTICE NYAA! TEZUKA IS GOING TO BE SO MAD NYAA"

 **. . .**

She took the train and went down at the station Ryuzaki-sensei had told her, but she couldn't find her way to Hyotei after that. She did not know whether to turn left or right after going out from the station. And she refused to ask people for direction. She had more pride than that, or to put it simply, she was too embarrassed to ask.

' _Damn Ryuzaki-sensei for asking me to go.'_ Ryoma finally turned left following her gut feeling. She was walking along the road and was thinking on how to get to Hyotei without embarrassing herself too much. She took another left turn and kept on going.

After walking for 15 minutes, she somehow managed to end up in the train station again. She was pissed. She knew her sense of direction was not the best, but really? To have end up in the same spot after 15 minutes?! She was considering calling her cousin for help and took out her phone. She decided against it since Keigo probably didn't know his way since he always used limo to get to and from school. So, she decided to turn to the next best person for help, Ryuzaki-sense. She was pressing her coach's number when another person bumped into her and made her fell onto the floor.

"OW! Watch where you're going!" She barked to the person. The person she bumped into was a very tall teenage boy with silvery-grey hair.

"I'm so sorry. Are you fine?" He offered his hand to her.

She ignored the hand and stood up on her own. "I'm fine." She replied and looked at his face. She noticed his brown eyes and he had a troubled look on his face.

"Are you sure? I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you." He was a bit mesmerized to see the girl he bumped into. She was really pretty with her dark-green hair and bright brown, almost golden, eyes. And her face features were really nice. But he certainly would not say that out loud, he had his manners.

"Really, it's okay." Ryoma was going to turn around to continue on her way when she noticed what the boy was wearing. He was wearing a brown blazer with a familiar logo on the top left. It was Hyotei Gakuen uniform. She knew because she saw her cousin in that uniform enough times. She called the boy back,

"Wait, are you, by any chance, a Hyotei student?"

"Yes. How do you know?" The boy looked surprised.

"You are wearing your school uniform."

"Oh right! I'm Ootori Choutarou by the way." He smiled to her.

"Echizen Ryoma."

"Are you from Seigaku?" He asked again, seeing her in the familiar green blazer and skirt of Seigaku uniform.

"Yes. Ootori-san, can you show me the way to your school? I need to meet someone there."

"Sure! I'm going there now as well. You can call me Choutarou instead."

"Okay then, Choutarou-san." She followed him to his school.

"So, what business do you have with Hyotei, Echizen-san, if you don't mind me asking?"

Normally, Ryoma would be pissed if anyone tried to find out about her business, but not with this boy. He asked in such a polite manner that Ryoma would feel bad if she didn't answer his question. Besides, he seemed like a nice person.

"I need to deliver some documents to the tennis coach there. And you can call me Ryoma if you like."

"Oh! I'm in the tennis team! I can help you find Sasaki-sensei, Ryoma-san."

"Really? Thank you, it would save me a lot of trouble." She replied.

After walking and chatting for 10 minutes, both of them reached Hyotei and Ootori quickly guided her to the tennis courts, where Sasaki-coach would be. Upon reaching the court, she saw just how big Hyotei's tennis club's facility was. The hundreds of members of the tennis club were scattered among the many courts, practicing. So, she guessed, her cousin wasn't lying when he told her about Hyotei's tennis club.

"That is Sasaki-sensei over there, Echizen-san." Ootori pointed to a man in a maroon suit.

"Okay, thank you for your help, Choutaro-san." She gave him a small smile before making her way to Sasaki-sensei. Seeing the smile, Ootori turned slightly pink, but Ryoma was oblivious to it.

She bowed to the coach before greeting him, "Good afternoon, Sasaki-sensei. Ryuzaki-sensei sent me to deliver these documents to you."

"Ah yes, Ryuzaki-sensei alerted me already. Thank you for delivering it here. I have to take care of this now. Since you are already here, you can watch our practice, if you like." He said while leaving the courts to the main building.

"Thank you sensei." She replied before bowing to him and left to watch the practice. She went around the courts when she heard her cousin calling her.

"Ah princess, I see you finally arrived! Do you miss me that much?" Atobe was making his way to her and gave her a quick hug, as usual.

"You wish I miss you Kei."

"Come let me show you the magnificent Hyotei tennis club." He dragged her to a more secluded area that only has 10 courts in it. She was guessing it's the regulars' training area. Outside of the courts, behind the fences, there were more than hundreds of fangirls squealing and screaming for the tennis regulars.

When Atobe was seen, the squeals were louder.

"Atobe-sama, KYAAA"

"We love you, King!"

However, when Ryoma was seen holding hands (aka dragged by) with Atobe, squeals, groans and moans were heard from the girls.

"That girl is so luckyyy, oh my gosh!"

"I wish I was in her place. Look, Atobe-sama is holding her hand!"

"KYAAAAA"

"Atobe-sama, you can bring me instead!"

"No, Atobe-sama, don't you have a girlfriend, HUAAAA"

When Ryoma entered the court area with Atobe, time seemed to stop. Everyone dropped what they were doing and the sound of ball being dropped onto the floor resounded through the courts.

"Atobe brought a girl to the court!" Gakuto and Shishido yelled in disbelief.

"Buchou, who is the girl?" Hiyoshi asked.

"She's really pretty! Is she your new girlfriend buchou?" Jirou chirped in excitedly.

Choutarou was gaping to see the girl he bumped into just now was not with Atobe, holding hands no less.

Only Kabaji and Yuushi managed to remain quiet. Kabaji was being his usual self (that and he had met with Ryoma when Atobe visited Ryoma). Yuushi was not the one to be taken by surprise.

Atobe himself seemed to pay no heed to his crazy fangirls, he was used to it, and the questions thrown by his regulars.

"Buchou, who is thiiisss?" Gakuto was suddenly next to Ryoma and poked her cheek.

"Don't touch me!" Ryoma hissed.

"And she got some sass!" Hiyoshi mused.

"Care to explain, Atobe?" Yuushi raised his eyebrow.

"She's from Seigaku, her name is Echizen Ryoma." Atobe answered.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Choutarou was suddenly curious.

"You have such a pretty girlfriend, buchou! Man I'm jealous!" Shishido said.

"Ne, ne, who are you exactly that our buchou brings you here to our court?" Gakuto asked Ryoma.

"Who I am is none of your business." Ryoma replied curtly again. She was getting annoyed by the treatments she was getting. It wasn't enough that her teammates were annoying and loud, but her cousin's team was more or less the same as well. Why must the gods conspire against her and made her surrounded by loud people.

"C'mon, don't be such a joy killer. Who are you really?" Gakuto questioned her again, unfazed by her hostile manner.

Ryoma sighed for the nth time that day. It seemed that if she didn't answer their questions, they wouldn't stop bugging her.

"As Kei has said, I'm Echizen Ryoma."

"OMG, she called buchou Kei!"

"Are you really his girlfriend?"

"You're so lucky buchou!"

"Buchou, I didn't know you like short girls!"

Hearing this, Ryoma let out a vein popped on her head. She hated being called short, let alone by some people she had met barely more than 5 minutes.

"I AM NOT SHORT!" Ryoma growled.

"Enough!" Atobe yelled to stop this mess, "Everybody back to practice! Ryoma, can you just wait for me? Practice ends in 15 minutes, and then we can go home together."

"SHE REALLY IS BUCHOU'S GIRLFRIEND!" Gakuto and Shishido mused.

Ryoma ignored all the comments made by her cousin's team and simply walked around the court some more. She finally settled on a spectator bench near the court and watched them practice. She really thought his cousin's teammates were weird. They just attacked her with questions like there was no tomorrow and they even assumed she was his girlfriend!

On one court, there were a redhead jumping around like some monkey and spectacled blue-haired man fighting Choutarou-san and a boy with a boy with long brown hair.

"Scud serve!" Choutarou said while serving a very fast serve, even Ryoma was a bit surprised by the speed.

"This is nothing." The redhead returned the serve while hanging on mid-air.

"Try to return this Gakuto!" The boy with the brown long hair dashed to the front of the court and hit it to the redhead's blind spot.

"You forgot this is double. Never let yourself be blind by anything else." The blue-haired spectacled guy appeared behind the redhead and returned the shot so fast that Choutarou-san and his partner couldn't return it.

"Game, set and match, 7 games to 5, Oshitari/Gakuto"

' _Hnnn, not bad for my cousin's team,'_ Ryoma mused.

On the next court, there was the boy who looked sleepy but somehow managed to return all shots from Kabaji-kun. She knew Kabaji since he was always around her cousin and thus she had met Kabaji a couple of times.

"Not yet, Kabaji!" And returned Kabaji's forehand with a lob.

"Eh, that's cheating Kabaji! No fair!" He whined when Kabaji hit a smash to the other side of the court.

"Usu."

"Game, set and match 6 games to 4, Kabaji"

Her cousin himself was yelling orders to an orange-brown haired boy."Hiyoshi, your backhand is so weak ore-sama is appalled by it."

"Yarouuu!" The said boy was provoked by her cousin's comment and shot an even stronger backhand, but Atobe seemed to have no problem returning it.

"Game, set and match, 6 games to 2, Atobe"

At this, as if it was planned all along, the fangirls cheered louder for Atobe. And Atobe simply flicked his hair and said,

"Be awed my ore-sama's prowess. Alright people, practice ends here today. Dismissed"

Then Atobe made his way to where Ryoma was right now.

"Your team is not bad, Kei."

"Expect nothing less from my team, Ryoma."

"Ne, Ryoma-hime, do you wanna eat with us?" Gakuto waved at her and asked excitedly.

"Ryoma-hime?" A vein popped to Ryoma's head. "Who allowed you to call me by my first name and add –hime to it some more!"

"Choutarou called you Ryoma as well!" Gakuto replied, while Choutarou was blushing like a tomato.

"That's because I allowed him too. I don't remember allowing you guys too!"

"Besides, you're really pretty and you're buchou's girlfriend, so you are a princess to us. Pleaseeeee, Ryoma-hime. Come eat with us!" Jirou pleaded with his puppy eyes.

"Yadda!"

"Pleaseeeeeeee" more puppy eyes were directed to her, made by Gakuto and Jirou. The others simply sweatdropped at their teammates' behavior.

Seeing the puppy eyes, Ryoma couldn't say no. ' _Curse my weakness!'_

"Fine" she huffed.

"YEAYYYYYY! Yuushi, did you hear that? Ryoma-hime agreed to eat with us!" Gakuto mused.

"Ore-sama shall kindly grace his presence and join you seeing how Ryoma is coming. Come, we shall eat at ore-sama's house." Atobe commanded.

"I swear, Kei, your ore-sama speech is getting more and more annoying." Ryoma muttered while the rest of the regulars snickered behind her.

"Shut it all of you," He commanded the regulars, "Ore-sama's speech is nothing less than perfection itself. Ore-sama shall not be degraded to your level of speech, plebians."

"Let's go already, ore-sama does not wait for people." Ryoma mimicked Atobe's speech so perfectly and flicked her hair, earning more snickers and laughters from the regulars, and a glare from Atobe.

"Stop it, Ryo-chan. I do not appreciate you trying to follow my way of talking to the regulars."

"Fine fine."

"OMG DID YOU HEAR THAT?" Gakuto exclaimed, "Atobe didn't use ore-sama with Ryoma-hime! She must be really special!"

"Is it true, Ryoma-hime?" Jirou asked.

"Enough of this ruckus! Let's go already. Ore-sama commands you all to get to the limo."

The rest of the regulars and Ryoma followed Atobe to his limo and were on the way to his house. Ryoma was sitting next to Atobe with the other side empty. All the other regulars sat on across them. The moment they rode into the limo, the regulars straightaway bombarded Ryoma with questions.

"So, hime-chan, how long have you known buchou?" Jirou asked.

"Ryoma-san, how can you even stand Atobe?" Shishido followed.

"Not to mention his inflated ego!" Gakuto added.

"Oi, ore-sama does not have inflated ego!"

"You guys, don't harass her." Yuushi stated.

"We're not!" Jirou, Choutarou and Shishido instantly answered back.

"We're not harassing you, right hime-chan?" Jirou moved to Ryoma's empty side and hugged her excitedly. The said girl was simply shocked by the braveness this Jirou guy displayed, hugging a person he barely met for 30 minutes. But she didn't mind because Jirou reminded her of an excited puppy.

"Jirou!" Atobe yanked Jirou away from Ryoma, "Ore-sama does not appreciate you harassing her. You touch her one more time, and ore-sama will make sure there is hell to pay in practice!"

"But whyyy buchou? She's really nice!" Jirou pouted like a kid being deprived of his favourite candy.

"Oh wow, buchou is angry! She must be his real girlfriend!" Gakuto mused, seeing how protective their buchou was toward the girl.

Hearing enough of this Atobe's girlfriend thing and having enough of being bugged incessantly by Atobe's teammate, Ryoma finally cracked,

"Let me make one thing clear to you, I AM NOT ATOBE'S GIRLFRIEND! STOP ALL THIS NONSENSE!"

"EH WHAT?" All the Hyotei's regulars were shocked.

"Impossible! Atobe/Buchou, is that true?" they asked Atobe.

"Yes it's true. Ryoma is not ore-sama's girlfriend. I never said she was. And Ryoma, any other girl would be honoured to date ore-sama!" Came the reply from Atobe.

"THEN WHO IS SHE?!"

"Keigo-bocchama, Ryoma-hime, we have arrived at the house."

"And the chauffeur even knows Ryoma so well and called her princess! How can she not be your girlfriend, Atobe!" Gakuto asked in disbelief.

Atobe didn't answer the question and simply walked to the house, followed by Ryoma and Kabajji. The regulars who were left in the limo stared at them with disbelief.

"Atobe must be lying! How can she not be his girlfriend?" Gakuto declared, "He was so protective of her when Jirou hugged her!"

"Yes, buchou immediately yanked me away from her!" Jirou added.

"It doesn't make sense!" Shishido chirped in.

"Maybe buchou likes her but she doesn't like him back. That's why she's not his girlfriend and that's why she was angry at being called his girlfriend." Choutarou suggested.

"That makes sense actually," Yuushi finally joined in the discussion, "That would explain why she was allowed to go into the courts and why Atobe is so protective of her. He wouldn't want any of us to steal her away from him."

"Whatever guys, let's just go eat." Hiyoshi was getting tired of the stupid conversation. "We'll find out soon enough."

All the regulars went to the dining room and they found Ryoma sitting in between Atobe and Kabaji. On the dining table, there were tens of plates filled with scrumptious food. The regulars were already hungry and quickly ate like there was no tomorrow.

"Ne, hime-chan, are you sure you're not buchou's girlfriend?" Jirou asked again while eating his chicken drumstick.

A vein popped on her head. She had had enough of this. And she was going to teach them to never ask about this topic again.

"I tell you to stop asking me. Grrr..." She growled menacingly.

And the next thing they knew, Jirou, Gakuto and Shishido were lying on the floor face down.

"Hey why is it only us that got punched, Ryoma-chan! Why didn't Choutarou or Yuushi or Hiyoshi get punched as well!"

"Because they didn't the hell out of me by asking the same questions!" She barked. "Let me warn you one more time, drop the subject guys! It is none of your business."

A thought passed through the three regulars on the floor, ' _Ryoma can be really scary when angered. Never ask her about her status with Atobe, ever again."_

The regulars spent the whole night with Ryoma and that was how their friendship was formed.

 _'Why am I surrounded with all the noisy people?'_

Ryoma 'hated' them because they were noisy like her Seigaku regulars but she knew spending time with them would never be boring.

* * *

Words

Senpai-tachi: group of upperclassmen. It is used to address the many seniors as a group

* * *

 **A/N (2):** I'm making it so that every team has a different perception of Ryoma.  
Seigaku thinks she and Atobe are dating while Hyotei thinks it's a one-sided love.  
Ryoma didn't bother to correct the misunderstanding because she thought it wasn't their business to pry in the first place. (In case anyone is wondering)  
And Ryoma didn't tell the Hyotei regulars that she was in Seigaku, so there would be a surprise later.

* * *

 _Do leave your thought about this chapter!_

 **Next up is Ryoma's day off with her brother, some Echizens love!**

* * *

Much love,

violetperiwinkle ~


	11. 10-1: Ryoma's Day Off Part 1

**Chapter 10 Part 1: Ryoma's day off - The Princess and Her Brother**

Hi guys! I'm back and this time I'm writing about Ryoma's day off and her spending the day with her brother.

Disclaimer: pot is still not mine, whyyy

* * *

' _I am going to beat him this time!'_ Ryoma was panting really hard but gave it her all in her twist serve.

"5 games to 4, Ryoma" His brother said.

' _Just one more game, and I finally beat baka oyaji.'_

"What? Since when are you this good, bishoujo?" Echizen Nanjiroh gasped in shocked. For once, he was the one in the losing end and he was pushed to his limit. He didn't realise that Ryoma had become such a great tennis player.

"40-0, match point." Ryoga announced in awe, "Damn chibi, you're getting good."

"I'll end it with this one!" Ryoma said while serving her twist serve. She was really ecstatic that she was finally going to beat her father. She was going to win at last. Ryoma hit a smash to the opposite side of where her father was. Nanjiroh ran to it, extending his racket to the ball. ' _Just a bit more!'_ He jumped to reach it and fell to the court. The ball hit his racket and flew to the other court.

"Mada mada oyaji!" Ryoma hit a smash to the opposite side of where her father was lying on the floor. The ball was going to land on the ground, giving it her victory at la –

"WAKE UP CHIBISUKE!" Ryoga shouted at her ear and poured iced water on her head.

"AH!" Ryoma shrieked and fell out of her bed with a loud thud. She looked at her surrounding. She was in her room, on the floor to be precise. It took her a while to grasp what was going on. If she's on the floor of her bedroom and was not playing tennis with her oyaji, then that could only mean one thing. She had not beaten her oyaji in tennis yet, and that was all just … a dream!

"How long are you going to stay on the floor, chibisuke?" Her older brother was amused to see his sister's behavior (which was caused by him).

"ANIKI YOU'RE BACK!" Ryoma hugged him. She was excited to finally see Ryoga. Ryoga was most of the time away since he's staying in his university dorm and was only back during weekends, if he wasn't busy. "But I'm going get you back for waking me up! GRRRR!" She smacked his head, suddenly remembering that her brother had interrupted her sweat dream.

"OW! Why did you do that?"

"That's for ruining my dream! I'm going to make you pay for dumping iced water on me! Grrrr"

"Only if you can catch me!" Ryoga winked and ran for his life. Ryoma was not someone to mess with when she wanted revenge, she could get pretty terrifying. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And this was especially true for his family. All the females in his family were scary like that. But, as a good older brother, Ryoga could never pass up the chance to tease his adorable little sister.

"Don't run away!" Ryoma shouted again but Ryoga was already down stairs. Now awake, she needed to decide what she wanted to do for the day. It was a Saturday and they had no practice today. She had the whole day for herself. She finally had some time away from those nosy senpai-tachi. Not that she hated them, she really enjoyed the fun moments with them. With the ever constant fights between Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai, as well as the endless chatter of Kikumaru-senpai, her days were never boring. But she could use some peace and quiet once in a while. Hanging too much with them could kill her brain cells, she swore.

But first thing first, she heard her stomach grumbled, demanding for food. So she took a quick shower and headed down stairs for breakfast.

In the dining room, she saw her stupid, annoying older brother eating his breakfast and Nanako washing the dishes. Her father wa nowhere to be seen.

"Good morning to you Ryoma-chan!"

"Morning nee-chan. Where's oyaji?" she asked.

"He went to Chiba prefecture. He's meeting some friends there and won't be back until later at night. Do you want your breakfast now, Ryo-chan?" Nanako answered and then laid a plate of omelets and sausages in front of her.

"Why is it western breakfast today?" Ryoma grumbled.

"We ran out of ingredients for Japanese breakfast. Here's your milk, Ryoma-chan."

"Thanks nee-chan." And since she was hungry, she ate the food grumpily.

"Chibisuke, if you don't like the food, I can always help you eat it!" Ryoga teased her again by stealing one of her sausages.

"That's mine!" She said and tried to steal her food back, but failed.

"Ryoga, you have your own food!" Nanako mock-scolded Ryoga but chuckled at their behavior. "So Ryoma, what are you going to do today since you have no practice?"

"Hmmm… I wanted to go to Kei's, but he has some business to attend to today. So I don't know yet."

"Why don't you go out with me today, chibisuke?" Ryoga asked.

"Yadda!"

"C'mon chibisukeeee. We haven't gone out for so long! You're always busy."

"Yadda! I haven't even gotten you back for waking me up this morning like that! And it's you who rarely comes back home during weekends!"

"Let's go out today, chibisuke, I'm so bored today! We can go eat lunch and cakes in the new café that just opened in Kanegawa. I know you want to try that out."

"It will be your treat though. Consider that compensation for this morning and for my breakfast."

Ryoga sweatdropped hearing his sister's answer, but since he hadn't spent so much time with his sister, he agreed.

"Fine, I'll treat you today."

"All right! You are the best, aniki!" She hurriedly ate her breakfast and went to upstairs to change her clothes.

"Do you want to come, Nanako?" Ryoga offered while walking toward the stair to change as well.

"Oh no, not today. I have part-time work today. You guys go ahead." Nanako smiled and left to clean the dishes.

Ryoma quickly picked out her clothes. Since she hated all girly clothes, ie skirts or dresses, she decided to wear a simple white tank top and her red jacket along with some black shorts.

"Hurry up, chibisuke!" Ryoga's voice was heard from downstairs.

She quickly tied her hair into a ponytail, grabbed her white cap and went to the front door.

"Chibisukeee, can't you wear something more like a girl?" Ryoga frowned looking at her sister's choice of clothing.

"I'm always a girl. Besides what's wrong with what I'm wearing?" she replied.

Ryoga sighed, "Whatever, let's just go. Just wait until ka-san's back, she won't be thrilled looking at your style."

 **. . .**

 _Kanagawa prefecture_

Both the Echizens siblings were now sitting on the new café, looking at the menu to choose what to order. The café was quite buzzing with people.

"I'll get one miso ramen with gyozas. For the desserts, I'll get one chocolate opera cake." Ryoma stated her order to the waitress, who was shamelessly flirting with Ryoga. And Ryoga being the don juan that he was, actually responded to the flirting.

"How about you, handsome? What are you ordering?" The waitress winked to him.

"I want... you. Can I get you?" Ryoga responded to the waitress who was not blushing a darker shade of red.

Ryoma was getting annoyed since the waitress was not leaving any time soon, and she was really hungry, said, "On second thought, I'll get one red velvet cupcake, one blueberry cheesecake and one super deluxe ice cream parfait, with cookies and cream flavor for the ice-cream as well."

"What? Why are you ordering so much, Ryoma?"

"I feel like it! And can you stop flirting please? I'm hungry and I want my order now."

Ryoga knew his sister would know no limit when it came to dessert. He could already feel his wallet suffering from all this. But spoiling his sister once in a while was fine, he guessed. It wasn't like he met his sister often since Ryoga was often away since he's staying in the university dorm. But seriously, his sister could surely eat a lot when it came to dessert. It's a wonder how she didn't get fat from all the calories, but he guessed tennis played a huge part in it.

"One chicken katsu curry rice meal and one cup of coffee latte for me, please." Ryoga ordered his drink. The waitress, finally, left to get their orders.

"Ara, why didn't you order cakes, aniki?"

"I can always take some of yours. You order enough for a whole village."

"I'm not sharing mine!"

"Yes you will, since I'm paying today."

"Fine."

15 minutes later, the waitress came back with all of their orders and more flirting. But at this point, Ryoma couldn't care less because she was more than delighted to see the arrays of food in front of her. Although, she was a bit annoyed that this waitress was hogging all her brother's attention.

She took a spoonful of the opera cake first. "It's so yummy ~ Here, try this cake, aniki!" She said while trying to spoon-feed her brother. Upon seeing this, the waitress left them alone. ' _Hah, serve you right, stupid waitress.'_

"You're right, it's nice. So tell me what I missed so far, Ryoma."

"Hmmm… Seigaku has some interesting tennis players, like they have all type of players. Like one of the senpais is like constantly high on sugar and play acrobatic tennis… And then the other one has like dual-personality. He changes when he holds a racket, weird isn't it, aniki?... Then there is a crazy senpai who is very annoying cause he always takes my data and make funny concoctions. Oh, then there is this very sadistic senpai. His smiles are creepy and he actually likes the poisonous concoctions… And my buchou! He is so stoic and strict all the time, aniki. He assigns crazy number of laps…" she rambled on and on about the regulars.

Ryoga was glad that his sister seemed to enjoy her time there and that she seemed fine again. She seemed to be back to her usual talkative self. He was worried for her after that incident. And it didn't ease his mind that he was away for most of the time. He was scared that she wouldn't enjoy herself in Japan or the same incident happening again. He was glad that she was happy in Seigaku. He wouldn't want anything to happen to her. She was his precious darling _imouto_ , after all.

"Oh and my senpai-tachi are so annoying. They are so nosy, aniki. They keep trying to pry to my affairs and even worse, they just assume a lot of things. How do I even get myself into this team? And you know, every morning this Kikumaru-senpai and Momo-chan-senpai always try to hug me and I always run out of breath, it's not even – "

"WHAT?!" Ryoga was instantly alert when he heard the word "hug". He was like breathing fire out of his mouth currently, "Some brats tried to hug you? Why did you let them? I AM SO GOING TO KILL THOSE _GAKIS_! WHERE ARE THEY, HOW DARE - OW!"

"Baka aniki, stop embarrassing me!" She smacked her brother's head with the menu. She hit so hard that there was a bump coming out instantly. This got her brother to calm down and sat back down. "The senpais are fine. It's not like they are doing anything else."

"But Ryomaa, you never know what they are up to!" Ryoga worried for his sister.

"I can take care of myself okay! And besides, Kei is there sometimes. But he attracts way too much attention to my schoolmates. And my schoolmates! Japanese people are crazier than Americans, aniki. It's like they create a fanclub on my first day, and they keep chasing me around. I can't get some peace any time …" Ryoma continued talking while Ryoga was still a bit sulky hearing her teammates dared to hug her.

So they chatted for almost an hour and a half before they decided to head out to the street. Ryoma wanted to go to a tennis store to find some grip tapes. Hers was almost finished and the branch in Tokyo didn't have the stock any more. She was hoping they had it here.

And lady luck seemed to be smiling upon her. The store had 2 last stocks for her tapes. She quickly grabbed both of them, so she didn't need to buy them any time soon, and went to the counter to pay. Her brother was looking at some strings and was considering buying some as well, when his phone rang.

"Hello? … EH ITS TODAY? … I'm in Kanagawa now! … What time is it starting again? … Shit! … Okay okay, I'm going as soon as possible!" He hung up and immediately searched for his sister.

"Chibisuke, I'm so sorry! Apparently I have an event that I volunteered to and I forgot about it! Can we go home now? I'm really sorry! I'll make it up to you!" He apologized profusely.

Ryoma understood. She knew it must be important enough for her brother since her brother rarely ditched her for anything. But she didn't want to go home just yet. She would probably bore her mind out at home because she had nothing to do.

"Yadda, I'm staying – "

"Chibisuke, don't be like that. I'm really sorry. It's really important this time." Ryoga started to whine.

"Geez, don't cut me off, aniki. I'm saying that you should go to the event, I'm just going to stay here a little longer. I have nothing to do at home anyway."

"No! You are going home with me. I can't let you wander off by yourself here, what if you get lost? Or kidnapped!"

"I'm old enough to take care of myself. So I'll be fine on my own."

"No, I am going to take you home first. I'm not risking anything, chibisuke!"

"Yadda! And aren't you late already? Just go! I'll be fine."

"But you need to text me every hour to make sure I know you're safe. EVERY HOUR okay chibisuke."

"Fine fine, but you owe me for this one, aniki."

"Thank you chibisuke! I promise I'll make it up to you." He gave her a quick hug and ran out of the store to the train station.

' _How can I get such a stupid person as a brother?'_

Ryoma, now left alone, was wondering what she could do. She considered the idea of watching a movie but there was no interesting movie in the cinema. She thought about playing tennis in some street courts but sadly she didn't bring her rackets today. In the end, she decided she might as well go to the arcade and play some games. It had been a while since she last played in the arcade.

* * *

Words:

Imouto: little sister

Gakis: Brat

* * *

Done! How you do you like the Ryoga and Ryoma interaction?

Btw, I'm making a part 2 to this chapter. _**She'll be meeting Rikkai's regulars in her day off!**  
_ She met Hyotei so it's only fair she meets Rikkai too

xoxo,

 _periwinnkle_


	12. 10-2: Ryoma's Day Off Part 2

**Chapter 10 Part 2: Ryoma's Day Off - Meeting with some Rikkai Dai regulars**

Ryoma's not going to meet all of the Rikkai team, don't expect all of them to come out!

 **Important:**

1\. There's no timeline change! I had fun writing Ryoma's day off, I hope you have fun reading this too.

2\. This is going to bit OOC for Ryoma, but since Ryoma is a girl and she is properly raised to be a lady (since she's rich and all), I decided she would be more polite than the original Ryoma. She'll call people with suffix like –san or –kun. She will only call people without suffix if she's really close to them. I'll try to maintain other personality traits of Ryoma.

3\. Thank you so much for the guest reviewers. I noticed there are more guest reviews, since I can't reply to you, I'll say my thanks here! Thank you also to the loyal readers and reviewers and followers who always support this story!

 **Please read the A/N below as well!**

Disclaimer: pot is not mine, but enjoy!

* * *

 _Ryoma, now left alone, was wondering what she could do. She considered the idea of watching a movie but there was no interesting movie in the cinema. She thought about playing tennis in some street courts but sadly she didn't bring her rackets today. In the end, she decided she might as well go to the arcade and play some games. It had been a while since she last played in the arcade._

 **. . .**

When she entered the arcade, she couldn't help but notice the stares some boys were giving to her. ' _Do these guys never see a girl before or what?'_ she thought as the stares annoyed her. The boys were staring openly and without shame.

Well, technically, it wasn't their fault. Even with her boyish clothes, Ryoma was a very attractive girl. And hey, how many times did you get a girl entering an arcade by herself, let alone an attractive one? But since Ryoma was oblivious to her natural beauty, Ryoma thought the stares were annoying thus she decided to ignore them.

Ryoma then went to the car racing game. She remembered she used to spend a lot of hours in the arcade with her older brother back in the US. And playing here brought back a lot of fun memories, she was enjoying herself here. Plus, she was getting better at this game as well and was advancing to the next levels quite fast. After an hour or so, she finished the whole mission and finished the game. She wanted to play another round but decided it was too boring to do so.

She checked her phone and it was only 3pm. She didn't have to be home until dinner, which was 7pm. So she walked around the arcade, looking for some other fun games to play.

Just then, an interesting event caught her eye.

There was a seaweed haired boy shouting and whining like a 5-years-old brat because he lost a game. "NO FAIR MARUI SENPAI! YOU CHEATED! I WAS TOTALLY WINNING BEFORE YOU CHEATED!"

"I totally did not. I won the game fair and square." A redhead energetic boy chewing a bubble gum replied him.

"YOU DEFINITELY CHEATED!"

"Guys, don't be too loud. You're attracting attention." A dark-skinned, bald boy told the both of them.

"BUT JACKAL-SENPAI, MARUI-SENPAI CHEATED!" The seaweed boy yelled even louder.

Deciding that it was none of her business, she went pass them. The seaweed boy was now throwing tantrums like a child and shouted demanding a rematch with his senpai.

"Such a brat." Ryoma mumbled softly.

But, unfortunately, the boy heard the comment Ryoma made, and turned to her.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY GIRL?"

"I was just saying you're acting like a brat." Ryoma didn't back down when addressed to and glared back at him.

"HOW DARE YOU LITTLE GIRL! YOU THINK YOU'RE SO GREAT? COME PLAY A MATCH WITH ME!"

Ryoma accepted his challenge because she was totally annoyed with this boy already. Not only did he call him little, he also looked down on her because she was a girl. She was so going to humiliate him. That and because an Echizen never backed down from a challenge.

"Fine." She went to the game machine beside the boy. It was a combat game and she hadn't played this for a while. She was really good at this type of game, or at least she used to be good in the US. It had been a while and she wasn't sure whether she still had the skills for this type of games.

They were playing the best of 3 games. She was looking at the characters available and she decided to choose a female character with a ponytail and was carrying two double swords. Back in the US, she always played with characters with double swords as weapon. She hoped the way they played this game wouldn't be so different with the way they played in the US.

"Are you sure you are going to pick that girl as your character? Such a stupid choice." The boy sneered.

A vein popped on her forehead, he totally did not just sneer at her.

' _I'll beat the crap out of your character! Grrrr'_

She lost the first round since she forgot how to play to the game at first.

"HA! You really suck at this!" The boy mocked her.

"Akaya, don't be rude!" The dark-skinned boy chided him gently.

' _Just you wait, you little brat! I'm going to beat the shit out of you,'_ Ryoma thought.

True enough, after a while, she got the hang of the game and understood more on how to play the game. It turned out the way they played it was quite the same except for a few buttons here and there. She remembered the strategies she usually used in this type of game and started to play better. She won the next two rounds easily with her character's life still fully intact. She smirked, "Mada mada dane."

Kirahara was now gaping in disbelief. He could not believe he was beaten so humiliatingly and to top it all, he was beaten by a _girl_. He, Kirihara Akaya, the king of arcade, lost to a girl. What had the world becoming into?

"HAHAHA AKAYA YOU LOST SO BADLY AND GOT BEATEN BY A GIRL!" Marui and Jackal were laughing so hard, their stomach started to hurt. They started dropping on the floor while clutching their stomachs, but continued laughing at their junior's expense.

After a while, Marui got controlled of his laughter and approached the girl, "Ha... ha... Hey, what's your name? You're really cool, I've never seen Akaya got beaten so badly before! HAHAHA"

"Aren't you supposed to introduce yourself first before asking someone else's name?" Ryoma replied curtly.

"Oh you're right! My name is Marui Bunta and that is Kuwahara Jackal. The brat you just beaten is Kirihara Akaya."

"Echizen Ryoma, nice to meet you."

"I'm so glad you beat Akaya so he can stop whining that I cheated. I like you already!" Marui spoke excitedly. This girl definitely piqued his interest. Not only was this girl really beautiful (though she didn't seem to be aware of it), she could also beat Kirihara in these games. He definitely didn't see a lot of girls who usually came to the arcade to play, let alone beat Kirihara, who was a regular in this arcade. And to top it all, this girl got some vibe on her that made her very cool in his eyes, maybe with her curt replies and sarcastic answers. This girl had this natural ability to attract people around her even more to her, even if she didn't do it on purpose. He definitely liked this girl already.

"YOU DEFINITELY CHEATED MARUI SENPAI!" Kirihara was back to whining again.

"Ignore him," Marui continued, "Anyway, do you want to join us to eat burgers after this?"

Ryoma wanted to refuse because she was so not going to go with some guys she just met and didn't know a thing of. But somehow this Marui guy reminded her of Kikumaru-senpai, with the redhead and bubbly personality. And he looked like a nice guy, same goes with the other two boys – although the Kirihara boy was a bit too loud for her liking. She decided that it would be fun hanging out with since she had nothing to do anyway.

"Fine with me." She replied.

"Cool, let's go! Akaya's treating since he lost!" Marui dragged her by her wrist and all four of them went to the nearest burger chain restaurant.

"Yeayy burger for ... WAIT WHAT?! NO IM NOT TREATING YOU SENPAIS!" Kirihara yelled again.

Ryoma ordered only one burger since she was still quite full from the food and desserts she ate during lunch with her brother. Kirihara and Marui ordered 5 burgers for each of them, while Jackal only ordered 2.

They quickly sat down and started eating. Marui seemed to have taken a liking to Ryoma since he kept trying to chat with her.

"Ne, Ryoma-chan, which school do you go to?"

' _When did I allow him call me Ryoma and then there is the –chan as well?'_

"I didn't allow you to call me Ryoma-chan. And I go to Seigaku, Marui-san." She replied.

"Oh! C'mon, can I please call you Ryoma-chan?"

"Yadda. I just met you an hour ago or so, Marui-san."

"Don't be mean, Ryoma-chan. And don't call me with a –san please, I sound so old. So can I call you Ryoma-chan? Pleaseeeee"

"Fine whatever you want, Marui-kun."

"Yeay! You can call me Bunta if you want since I get to call you Ryoma-chan!"

"I'll just stick with Marui-kun since I'm really bad with names and your face is already stuck in my brain with the name Marui-kun."

"You're funny I swear," Marui snickered, "Oh by the way, we all go to Rikkai Dai, and I'm the genius there!" Marui bragged proudly.

"Self-proclaim genius." Kirihara chirped in.

"I AM NOT!" Marui retorted back to Kirihara and suddenly both of them were engaged in a debate.

Ryoma sighed at this, somehow these people reminded her of her Seigaku seniors. They were such a rowdy bunch as well, and there were only 3 people here instead of a whole team like her team. Ryoma decided to ignore them and opened a packet of chili sauce instead. But her hands were slippery and it was quite hard to open the packet.

"Here, Echizen-san, I'll help you open it." Jackal offered help, noticing her trouble.

"Ah, thank you Kuwahara-san." And she handed the packet chili sauce to him.

"No problem. You can call me Jackal. I know my last name is a bit long and hard to pronounce." Jackal gave her the now-opened sauce back.

"Okay then, Jackal-san."

"Ne ne Echizen, what club are you in Seigaku?" Kirihara asked, seemingly to forget the taunts he made to Ryoma in the arcade. Now he was acting like nothing happened.

"I'm in the tennis club."

"Oh, that's the same as us then! We're the regulars in Rikkai!" Kirihara replied.

"What brings you here all the way to Kanagawa if you go to Seigaku, Ryoma-chan?" Marui joined in the conversation again.

Ryoma told them about her brother and how she ended up in Kanagawa. They continued talking about small topics until they finished eating. After getting out of the restaurants, Marui asked, "What do you want to do now guys?"

"Shall we go to the mall? I heard a new video games just came out yesterday!" Kirihara suggested.

"Sure" They all agreed.

 **. . .**

 _In the mall,_

It was a weird sight to see a beautiful girl surrounded 3 boys with so different demeanors and people were staring. Well, actually they were staring because of Kirihara was protesting loudly about Marui cheating in the arcade. He was still insisting that he was the winner if Marui didn't cheat. Jackal chatted with Ryoma and ignored Kirihara's loud voice.

When they arrived at the store, Kirihara seemed to forget about the arcade incident and jumped around excitedly looking for his video game.

' _He really is a brat. Or more like an excited puppy'_ Ryoma thought.

Kirihara finally found the game he was looking for and was really happy. He was explaining to Jackal how awesome the game was and wasn't really paying attention to where he was walking. He was too excited to notice his surrounding. Thus, he bumped into the display decoration in the store. The worst part was the display was made out of stacks of video games made into the shape of a huge CD and Kirihara knocked all of them down. It was quite a mess now that a lot of video games were scattered on the floor.

The store manager came up from behind them with a menacing aura and evil eyes. Needless to say, they were asked to collect all the video games from the floor and then they were scolded for so long. It was as if the store manager had no stop button, he kept on talking nonstop. Jackal had to apologize many times and when that didn't seem to work, Marui asked Ryoma to use some of her female charm and pretend she was going to cry. Naturally, Ryoma adamantly refused at first. But since, they manager didn't seem like he was going to stop any time soon, Ryoma finally agreed to do it.

She tried to remember how girls usually did it in the movies since she never did this sort of things. Ryoma tried to scrunch up her face so she could look sad and all, but she didn't think it was going to work. But seeing that the manager wouldn't stop talking, she finally just looked down on the floor with a stone face and mumbled,

"I'm really sorry, Sir. We didn't mean to do it."

The store manager, _finally,_ stopped ranting and immediately panicked since he assumed that the girl was going to cry. He wouldn't want people to think that he was the type of man who made girls cry, especially pretty girls like her. So he stopped scolding them and let them go. And he even gave Ryoma the video game Kirihara wanted to buy _for free_.

When they got out of the store, the other three boys burst into laughter.

"OH MY GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR ACTING IS SO GOOD RYOMA-CHAN!"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE, ECHIZEN-SAN!"

"AND THE MANAGER'S FACE WHEN YOU ALMOST CRIED! HAHAHA"

"SHUT UP AND BE GRATEFUL GUYS! Without me, you might be stuck for another hour or two with his scolding!"

"We are grateful! Its just too funny, Ryoma-chan! But thank you though!" Marui said in between laugh, while pinching her cheek causing her to blush at the contact.

"I hate you all."

"And I can't believe you even get the video game for free and you're giving it to me! Thank you so much Echizen! YOU ARE THE BEST!" Kirihara was like a child that just got his favourite candy. He was really happy that he got his game for free and tried to glomp Ryoma.

Marui, seeing this, suddenly pulled Kirihara by his collar, making Kirihara's attempt at glomping Ryoma unsuccessful. He had no idea why, but his body acted on his accord. But the idea of Kirihara hugging the cute girl just did not sit well with him.

"Marui-senpai, why did you pull me?!"

"I can't let you harass a girl, Akaya." Marui tried to come with some lame excuse.

"What! I'm not harassing her! Let me go Marui-senpai!"

Ryoma just shook her head seeing their childish behavior and turned to Jackal, "And you have to look after them every day? I pity you Jackal-san."

"HEY WE HEARD THAT ECHIZEN/RYOMA-CHAN!"

Ryoma laughed at their reactions. Then suddenly, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw that it was Nanako-nee-chan calling.

"Hello, Nanako-nee?"

"Ryoma, where are you now? Why aren't you home yet?" Nanako sounded worried, since it was normal for her little cousin to get lost.

"Oh, I'm still in Kanagawa. I just ate dinner and went to the mall."

"You better hurry up so you don't arrive home too late since it's going to be a long ride home."

"Okay nee-chan. I'm going home right now."

Ryoma closed the phone and turned to the three boys,

"Guys I need to go home now. My cousin is looking for me already."

"Do you want us to send you home, Echizen-san?" Jackal, being the most polite out of the three, offered since it wasn't nice to let a girl went home alone.

"Nah, it's okay. I can manage to go home by myself! Okay bye, see you guys around." She gave them a quick smile, turned back and walked to the train station.

Marui saw the smile and blushed a bit, "Ryoma-chan, wait!" Words left his mouth before they even registered to his brain.

"What is it, Marui-kun?"

"Err… That… I need… Email address… YES email address! Can we exchange email address? Like how are we going to see you again if we don't have your address and can't contact you?" He quickly came up with a (hopefully not too lame) reason.

"Oh ya! Okay, here's mine." So both of them exchanged email address and Ryoma was on her way to home once again.

' _They were such a fun bunch of boys. At least I managed to enjoy today.'_ Ryoma thought, content with her day off.

 **. . .**

 _After Ryoma left,_

"Marui-senpai, what's Echizen's email address? You exchanged with her right? I am going to challenge her next week! I am so going to beat her next time!" Kirihara asked his senpai.

"Who said I was going to give it you, Akaya? It's your fault you didn't get hers. Ask her yourself."

"EH! Don't be so stingy, Marui-senpai! And how am I supposed to ask her myself if I don't have her email address to begin with!"

"Not my problem, Akaya! See ya on Monday." Marui smirked and left for home.

"MARUI-SENPAI!"

* * *

Finally done! Phew.

 _You'll be making me happy if you review for me!_

 **A/N:** In case you're wondering, Kirihara won't like Ryoma romantically, because I'm going to write Kirihara as the baby of Rikkai and he will act like a child/brat or like a puppy. So he'll be more into challenges and video games than girls. And I'll make Yukimura or Niou meets her separately guys. I don't know which one yet, should it be Yukimura or Niou.

much love,

 _violetperiwinkle_


	13. 11: Words Do Hurt

Chapter 11: Words hurt more than any sword

Disclaimer: still not mine

 _ **Anyway I'll be away for 2 weeks plus soon, so don't expect any update from me. Sorry guys.**  
_ But I'll try to update the next chapter very soon to make it to you guys. I've been working on both chapters.

Hope you enjoy this!

* * *

It was 6pm and the sun was about to set soon. The school ground was already empty since almost all students had gone home already. One girl was staying behind in school and was just about to go home. Ryoma just finished her detention for the day. She got punished by the teachers for sleeping through the whole Maths and History period. It wasn't her fault anyway. She was so sleepy the whole day because she woke up too early because her stupid oyaji decided to make a ruckus in the morning.

Apparently, Nanako-nee found oyaji reading one of his perverted magazines and Nanako threatened to rat him out to Rinko-ba-san. Oyaji, being the stupid pervert that he was, begged Nanako not to and quickly ran away with his magazines. But he tripped over a sleeping Karupin and the cat, annoyed that her sleep was disturbed, scratched oyaji in all places. And oyaji's screams were so loud that even the neighbors came to check whether everything was alright. Ryoma couldn't believe how stupid her oyaji could get. Why did she have to be stuck with him as a father anyway?

"Next time, don't sleep in class again, Echizen." The teacher chided Ryoma the last time for the day.

"Hai sensei"

"Okay you are dismissed for today."

Ryoma left the classroom, went to get her shoes in the locker and set out for the school gate. She sent a text to the chauffeur to tell him that she just ended class and was going to the meeting point in the park soon.

She was walking toward the main gate when suddenly two pairs of hand grabbed her from nowhere and she was blindfolded.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL? WHO ARE YOU PEO HMPHHHH" She was gagged with a handkerchief and was dragged to some place. She was thrust backward and she could feel her back collided with a wall.

When her blindfold was released, the first thing she saw 4 girls who seem to be upperclassmen surrounding her. Then one of them untied the cloth inside her mouth, letting her spoke freely,

"What do you want?"

"So rude for a junior." one girl said, "We want you to realise who you are in this school."

"Quit the tennis club, bitch!" The other one added.

"What did you say?" Ryoma was getting annoyed. Not only did these senpais take her by force, they were also asking for her to quit tennis club. As if.

"I said that you are not good enough to be in the tennis team, little girl. You suck at tennis! How dare you be in the same team with Tezuka-sama and Fuji-sama? Know your place!"

"Yes, know your place, bitch. Even Sakura-sama here couldn't get anywhere near Tezuka-sama or Fuji-sama and you! You dare to be in the same team as them! I bet you seduced them into taking your pathetic little self."

"Hnnn, so you senpais are jealous, aren't you? Besides, isn't it hardly fair if you senpais gang up on me 4 agaisnt 1?" She smirked, provoking them even more.

"You little arrogant brat! You'll pay for this!" The girl named Sakura raised her hand and wanted to slap Ryoma.

But even before her hand touched Ryoma's cheek, a hand grabbed Sakura's hand. Ryoma held Sakura's hand so tightly and said sarcastically, "I wouldn't do that if I were you, _senpai_."

"Why you! Let me go!" The girl screamed.

"You get what you deserve, senpai." She said curtly, not letting her senpai's hand go, and gave them a very icy glare, making the other three senpais backed away.

"Let me warn you one more time senpais, I will not be subjected to this kind of treatment again. You think you can make me quit tennis club by doing this? I mastered art of self-defense when I was 8 years old, senpais. And I am not good enough to be in the team? I am in the regulars because I earned the place myself. Don't you dare ever say that again." She growled menacingly, "So I suggest you run away now, or I will have to tell your precious Tezuka-sama and Fuji-sama what you are doing to their freshman."

The four upperclassmen ran with their heels on their heads very quickly after that.

(A/N: You think Ryoma will be saved by one of her prince? She can handle a few upperclassmen by herself, people *wink*)

Ryoma was enraged right now. How dare those upperclassmen take her by force and then tell her that she seduced her way inside? How dare they? She stormed off to exit the school and since she didn't want to go home yet, she decided to take a walk in the street.

 **. . .**

The street was buzzing with people as usual. People were from work and on their way home. Ryoma was walking aimlessly. Her feet took her to a children's park just at the end of this street. It was a park that Kei and her used to visit a lot when they were younger. And seeing the familiar swing sets, she sat on one and just swung around.

Then out of nowhere, drops of water started to hit her head, but she ignored them. Soon those drops turn into splatter. It was raining cats and dogs now, but Ryoma didn't budge from her spot. She simply sat there.

She was really upset of the accusations those seniors gave her. How dare they tell her that she wasn't good enough for the team? How could they accuse her of seducing her senpais? She didn't even the art of flirting, let alone seduction. How dare they call her a bitch and tell her that she's worthless? Words always hurt her more than anything. Physical torment, she could endure. The pain would go away soon enough with time, but words? They stuck. For a long time. She hated herself that she let the words got to her. She kept telling herself they weren't right, but her mind decided otherwise. She's hurt and she knew it.

 ** _. . ._**

 _Flashback_

 _Little Ryoma was only 3 years old when she started to learn to play tennis. She was very much intrigued with tennis upon seeing her oyaji and aniki enjoying playing them. They played with such happy faces, and little Ryoma just wanted to try that too._

" _What is it, Ryo-chan?" Nanjiroh asked his cute little daughter when he saw her walking unsteadily toward him and Ryoga who were in the tennis court._

" _Ryo wan tlyy tis… (Ryo want to try this)"_

" _Ryo-chan wants to try tennis?" Nanjiroh asked her again._

" _Hn!" She nodded with her eyes shining brightly._

" _Okay, daddy will teach you tennis!" He gave Ryoma a tennis racket._

 _Little Ryoma was holding the tennis racket with both hands and it looked too big for her. But her face expressed happiness holding it. She tried to swing it, but fell since her balance wasn't good enough._

" _Ryo-chan, are you okay?" Nanjiroh asked Ryoma._

" _Yesh!" She got up and tried again, looking determined to do well in it._

 _ **. . .**_

" _That's her right? Nanjiroh's daughter?"_

" _Such a shame that she'll never be as good as her father."_

" _She's a girl after all."_

" _And compared to her brother, she's way below them."_

 _7 years old Ryoma heard those whispers, but she ignored them. As long as she had her tennis, all was fine. As long as she could enjoy tennis, other things didn't matter._

 _ **. . .**_

" _Such a shame that she was born a girl."_

" _Look, its Ryoga's little sister."_

" _That's Nanjiroh's daughter."_

 _10 years old Ryoma wanted to not care about these whispers. She wanted to say it didn't matter. But when you grew up hearing these things all the time, it was getting harder to ignore. Those voices were getting louder._

 _She was not her brother's sister nor was she her father's daughter in the tennis world, she was her own self. Why couldn't people see that? She longed to be a little girl again, where she could ignore those people. As she got older, she lost the ignorance that only little children could have. She longed to be a child again._

' _I am me. I will make them see me. I will prove it to them.' And somehow this became Ryoma's strength to continue tennis. This became her daily motivation. She practiced even harder everyday. She did twice the training her brother did. She would never let her gender be the block of her tennis._

 _And somewhere along the way,_ _ **she lost the thrills she got from tennis**_ _. She no longer enjoyed tennis and she lost the fun in it. All she could think about was proving those people wrong._

 _End of flashback_

 **. . .**

Ryoma might be a strong girl, but those words hurt. They stung a spot in her heart. She might not show it to people, but she was really upset whenever someone told her she wasn't good enough for tennis. She had been told those things her whole life, when she was trying to catch up to her father's and brother's reputation as great tennis players. Just because she's a girl, it didn't mean she's not as good as them. She could play tennis. And how dare some upperclassmen who didn't even know tennis tell her she's not good enough?

Ryoma was lost in her own world. She had sat there for Kami knew how long with the rain continued hitting her. Her uniform was drenched and her whole body was worse. But she could care less about it. All she knew was she felt frustrated that after all these years, there would always be people who thought she wasn't good enough.

"Ryoma-chan, what are you doing here?" a voice broke her thoughts and suddenly she didn't feel the rain on her head anymore.

"Fuji-senpai?"

She looked up and saw Fuji holding an umbrella over the both of them. Confusion and worry were evident in his face. And suddenly, Ryoma felt embarrassed that her senpai saw her being weak like this. She looked down to the ground again, and mumbled some reply.

"Betsuni"

"Ryoma-chan, this is not nothing. What is it?"

"…"

"Ryoma-chan, look at me."

Fuji knelt on the ground to be on the same level as Ryoma. He could care less about his pants getting dirty by the mud. Fuji held up her chin with his finger and saw her eyes stinging red, and her expression somewhere in between frustration and sadness. He could see and her stares were distant, as if she wasn't looking at him right now and she was remembering something else, something painful. He felt a pang in his heart seeing his junior like this and he wasn't even sure why. But now was not the time to think about his problem, he could take care of his feeling later.

"Have you been crying?"

"No, err, it was the rain." Ryoma spluttered to answer.

"Ryoma…"

And Ryoma knew Fuji was getting serious since he just called her name without any suffix. That and because Fuji's eyes were open. She wanted to answer, but she was sucked into his beautiful cerulean eyes. It was so enchanting and Ryoma could not think anything else besides those eyes.

' _So beautiful…'_

"… you home."

"What?" She snapped out of her thoughts.

"I said, let's get you home."

"NO!" She suddenly answered.

Fuji was confused with her reaction. Why didn't she want to go home? She's already so soaked from head to toe by the rain.

"Ka-san and tou-san will be worried if I go home like this."

"Do you want go to my house instead, Ryoma-chan?" Fuji had no idea why he offered his place. But he knew that he didn't want her to get hurt or sick, for some reason he did not know yet.

"It's okay, Fuji-senpai. I don't want to bother you. I'll just call Kei to pick me up."

Fuji could feel his anger rising up upon hearing Atobe's name being mentioned from her. He wanted to insist that she should just stay at his place, _where she could see him and not Atobe._ He wanted to argue that it would be a waste of time waiting for Atobe when his house was just so near round the corner of the park. But he didn't want rebut Ryoma in the state she was in right now. He was afraid that it would make her even more upset. When Ryoma finished calling, Fuji asked her again,

"Are you okay, Ryoma-chan?"

"I'm fine, Fuji-senpai."

Fuji asked no further question since Ryoma didn't seem to want to be asked. So they stayed quiet under his umbrella like that for 15 minutes before Atobe's limo was seen there.

Atobe hurriedly went down the limo without an umbrella and rushed to Ryoma's side.

"Are you fine, Ryo-chan? Are you hurt or anything?" He asked worriedly, glaring at Fuji all the while.

"I'm fine, Kei, just tired."

"C'mon lets get you dry." He escorted Ryoma to the limo, giving no heed to Fuji who was standing there all along.

Before Ryoma rode onto the limo, she turned her head and gave Fuji a weak smile, "Thank you, Fuji-senpai."

Then the limo disappeared into the rain.

 **. . .**

 _Atobe's house_

Atobe made Ryoma took a warm bath and changed into dry clothes. He did the same too. After that, he ordered a servant to make some hot chocolates for the both of them and pulled Ryoma to his bedroom.

"Do you want to stay here for the night?"

She nodded.

"I'll call Jiro-ji-san and inform him." He stood up and went to the phone.

"Kei…" Ryoma's weak call made him looked back to her, "Don't tell them anything."

He didn't say anything in return, but Ryoma knew he understood, and he called Ryoma's home.

"Jiro-ji-san, this is Keigo… Yes, Ryoma is with me now… She's fine, nothing happened to her… I found her in one of the street tennis courts and she was practicing… She's staying here tonight… Yes, I'll take care of her… Okay, good night ji-san."

He finished the call and turned back to Ryoma.

"Now that I've lied to your father, do you want to tell me what happened?" He asked softly.

"Nothing happened, Kei."

"Ryoma, you know I know you better than that right? Tell me what happened, Ryoma."

So Ryoma poured her heart out to Keigo. Somewhere between the story, her watery eyes turned to sobs and soon, they turned to cries. She cried in his arms that night. Keigo listened to all her anguish and frustration. He let her finish her crying, while hugging her at all times and he stroke her hair, like how he used to when they were younger.

When she was done talking, Atobe told her sternly,

"Listen to me Ryoma. Look at me… You are NOT a horrible tennis player. Those seniors have NO right to tell you otherwise. Take it from me, and I'm saying this not because I'm your cousin but because I'm a tennis player as well, that you ARE a great player."

The girl simply nodded and said nothing. Seeing her calmed down, he loosened up his hug and went to get more hot chocolate for her. When he came back, Ryoma was sitting on his bed doing nothing. She seemed to be almost back to her normal self

"Sleep Ryoma. You must be tired." He pulled her into his embrace and stroke her hair. He cooed her to sleep. "I won't let anything hurt you again, Ryoma."

"Thank you Kei…" was the last thing Ryoma said before tiredness came over her and led her to the dreamland.

Ryoma always found it nice to sleep in her cousin's embrace. And so did Keigo. Ryoma would always find comfort and warmth from Keigo and Keigo just loved having Ryoma in his arms, where she was safe from any danger. He would never let anything hurt his dearest cousin again.

 **. . .**

Fuji was confused with himself. He couldn't sleep, what was wrong with him? He kept on thinking about the incident just now. Fuji was on his way to the supermarket to get some groceries that his sister had ordered him to. He decided to take a shortcut through the park to get to the supermarket when he saw a figure in the swing, getting wet from the rain and the figure didn't seem to care. He was curious to see who it was, and as he got nearer, he saw it was a girl. He somehow had a feeling that the girl looked like Ryoma, but he wasn't sure. So he walked to the girl, not that the girl gave any indication that she heard him getting nearer to her. When he was in front of the girl, he was shocked to see the familiar Seigaku uniform and dark-green hair. He knew his suspicion was right. He asked her to make sure,

"Ryoma-chan, what are you doing here?"

"Fuji-senpai?"

And when she looked up, he saw how broken Ryoma seemed. It was as if the Ryoma he knew all along was a façade. The Ryoma he saw on the park was someone who seemed to have been hurt deeply all her life. It wasn't the arrogant 'brat' that he knew that was in front of him. Gone was the strong Ryoma who always teased her senpai. Gone was the haughty Ryoma who always came up with haughty remarks. All he saw was a fragile girl in front of him. She was like a delicate glass that could break any moment now.

He was deeply saddened by the Ryoma that he saw in the park. He would never again want to see that sight of Ryoma. He didn't want to ever see a sad face on her anymore, but he didn't even know why he thought that way.

He was confused with her and himself. Ryoma was an enigma to him. She attracted him greatly. It was not an every day occurrence that something caught Fuji Syusuuke's interest, but this girl seemed to catch his interest even without her knowing. Fuji knew that he wanted to know more about an Echizen Ryoma.

But right now, he needed to figure out why Ryoma had affected him greatly? What was he feeling toward her? He wasn't as dense as some people and he knew his attraction to Ryoma was greater than his usual attraction to any other people. Was he starting to have feelings his junior? And since when?

Too tired to think anymore, he finally dozed off to the dreamland.

* * *

Yeay Fuji realised his feeling for her. But his feeling is more to like, it hasn't developed to love yet.

What do you think of the FujiRyo and AtobeRyo interactions guys? Somehow I think this story is getting more and more to become AtobeRyo story hahaha, I can't help it, I just love to imagine their interaction as cousins.

 **Review and make me a happy writer guys!**

Next up: Flashback chapter on Atobe and Ryoma interaction during their childhood! I told you guys earlier that I would make one and you guys responded positively to it, so yeah its coming soon guys!

much love,

 _violetperiwinkle_


	14. 12: Flashback

**Chapter 12: Flashback**

I'm back with a flashback chapter guys, the one i told you guys i would make, remember? Hope you enjoy this  
And I'll be away for two weeks plus after this, so there wont be any update any time soon, sorry guys!

Oh and to those who think this is leaning more and more to AtoRyo, apology to you. After this, I'll try to make more FujiRyo chapters!

Btw, thank you for reviewers, followers and readers for sticking with this story, much love to you guys, muah!

 _Please read the AN below, I need some help!_

Disclaimer: pot is not mine

* * *

Little Keigo was trying to finish reading a storybook that his mother gave him last week in his living room. She had promised to give Keigo that particular (and expensive) tennis racket that Keigo wanted. It was a limited edition racket that was signed by a famous tennis player. Keigo, who just started playing tennis, was more than excited that he would get that. He was on his second last chapter and was going to finish it soon.

"Keiiii, huaaaa," suddenly a 3 years old Ryoma came crying to Keigo, "Huaaaa…"

Keigo, being only a boy, panicked and rushed to Ryoma's side. "What's wrong Ryo-chan? What happened? Are you okay?"

Ryoma wouldn't stop crying. She was trying to tell Keigo, "ate hics cream hics hics and I hics hics fell hics hurt huaaaaaa." But all that came out from her mouth was sobs and some unrecognizable words. Keigo couldn't understand anything she said. But he wanted Ryoma to stop crying because it gave him a sad feeling in his heart when he heard her cries. It hurt for Keigo too and tears started welling in his eyes as well.

However since, Keigo was only 5 years old, he didn't know how to stop his cousin's tears. He tried putting his hand over her mouth so she could stop making those noises. But this action seemed to make her cried even louder. Keigo panicked even more. What did he do wrong? Should he not put his hand over her mouth?

Ryoko came hurriedly into the room and gave her son an accusing glare, "Keigo, what did you do to Ryoma? Why is she crying?"

"I didn't do anything ka-san. It wasn't me, I promise. Ryo-chan just came to my room crying and I don't know what to do. And now I'm feeling sad too. What do I do, ka-san? How do I make it stop?" He spluttered some answer, still standing beside a crying Ryoma.

Ryoko gushed at how adorable the two children were and tried to hint to her son, "Kei, what does ka-san usually do to make you stop crying?"

"OH!" He hurriedly gave Ryoma a very tight hug, "Don't worry Ryo-chan. Please stop crying." This seemed to work. Ryoma was now sobbing instead of crying.

"What else does ka-san usually give you, Kei?" Ryoko asked Keigo.

And then he gave a slobbering kiss on Ryoma's forehead – he was still 5 years old after all. Ryoma stopped sobbing completely and seeing this, Keigo felt relieved.

"Good job, Kei. Ka-san is going back to the kitchen. Call me if there's any problem, okay?" With that, Ryoko left the two alone.

"Now Ryo-chan, tell me what's wrong?"

"Ryo-chan was iting is cweam, hics, and then I twipped ovel wock and fell. My niis huwt, hics." She explained pointing at it. ("Ryo-chan was eating ice cream, and then I tripped over a rock and fell. My knees hurt.")

Keigo, being a child as well, seemed to understand what Ryoma was trying to tell him and looked at her knees. They were red in colour, but there was no blood, to Keigo's relief. "Come sit here, Ryo-chan." He motioned her to move to the bed with him.

Both of them went to sit on the bed.

"Ka-san usually kisses the boo-boo. She said it makes the pain go away." Kei told Ryoma.

"Can you kiss it, Kei? It hurts," Ryoma asked with tears threatening to fall again.

Keigo bent down and kissed the cuts. "Pain pain go away." He said, "Feeling better, Ryo-chan?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore!" Ryoma smiled brightly and gave him a very tight hug, "Thank you, Kei! Ryo-chan likes Kei so much!"

Little Keigo felt a sudden happiness in his heart upon seeing that smile. He was glad he was the source of that smile.

"I love you too, Ryo-chan."

And ever since that day, whenever Ryoma cried, he would always come and hugged her until she stopped crying.

 **. . .**

"But tou-san said it does!" 5 years old Ryoma started yelling with tears already welling in her eyes. "Tou-san said toothfairy does exist!"

"No, it doesn't." The boy rebutted.

"It does!" Ryoma insisted, "See, I got this penny under my pillow yesterday!"

Ryoma was debating with a boy, Daichi, from the neighborhood about the existence of toothfairy. This all started when Ryoma came to the playground where her friends were playing games and she showed them her penny. Ryoma just lost her first tooth yesterday because she fell while playing tennis with her father. Needless to say, Rinko was less than pleased to hear her dearest daughter fell and blamed it all on her husband. Anyway, Nanjiroh had once told Ryoma that the tooth fairy would come and collect her tooth if she left it under her pillow. And that the tooth fairy would leave her a penny instead.

Ryoma of course believed whatever her father said and put her tooth under the pillow. When she found the penny in the morning, she was more than euphoric about it. She chattered nonstop about it to her family, and Nanjiroh and Rinko could only exchange knowing glance and smile at their daughter's antique. Ryoma then insisted to go to the playground after breakfast so she could tell her friends all about it. And that's how we got here.

Daichi, being the 6 years old, was old enough to know that tooth fairy did not exist and haughtily bragged to Ryoma about it. Daichi wanted to prove his point to Ryoma, since he knew he was right, and told Ryoma his proof/story. But what he didn't account for was Ryoma being the innocent 5 years old. Instead of believing him, Ryoma insisted he was wrong and started to cry instead.

"Daichi is lying, huaa. Ryo-chan don't like Daichi!" She started crying even louder.

Keigo, who just arrived, heard Ryoma's cries and quickly ran to Ryoma and hugged her.

"Shh, Ryo-chan, don't cry. Daichi doesn't mean it, right Daichi?" He asked while glaring at Daichi intensely.

"Err, right…" Daichi answered timidly and ran away.

"Are you okay, Ryo-chan?" And as if by magic, Ryoma stopped crying. There were only a few things that could stop Ryoma's cries and Keigo's hug was one of those. "C'mon let's go home."

 _At Atobe's residence_

Little Ryoma was still sulking about the incident and she sat on one of the sofas, being quiet the whole time. And Atobe was confused on what to do with his cousin. He tried hugging her again, but it didn't work. Atobe was thinking on his options to pacify Ryoma while pacing in his living room. And then, he remembered something.

"Ne, Ryo-chan, tou-san just went home yesterday and he brought chocolates from Swiss. Do you want one?"

This instantly gained a reaction from Ryoma, whose face was suddenly perked up and eyes shone brightly, like an excited puppy. "Really, ji-san did? Can I have some, Kei?"

"Yes, let's go to the kitchen!"

Ryoma immediately got up from her seat and followed her cousin to the kitchen, skipping up and down due to excitement.

In the kitchen, Atobe helped Ryoma to her seat, since she was too short to reach the chair on her own. Atobe then ordered a maid to bring the chocolate from Swiss to him. When the maid came and opened the box on the table, Atobe could see Ryoma's excitement.

"Take as many as you want, Ryo-chan."

"Yeay! Thanks Kei!" Ryoma answered merrily and proceeded to grab one and stuffed it inside her mouth. Ryoma, being the 5 years old, ate the chocolate messily and there was a lot of chocolate around her mouth.

"Ryo-chan, there's some chocolate on the side of your moth." Atobe told his cousin. And Ryoma simply used her sleeve to try to wipe some off, but it ended even messier as the dragging motion brought the chocolate to her cheek as well.

Seeing how hopeless it was, Atobe came to Ryoma with a handkerchief,

"Let me clean it for you." He said while wiping the chocolate off her face. "There, its all good now."

"Thank you, Kei. Can I have another chocolate, please?"

"But you'll get your clothes even dirtier and Rinko-ba-san will scold you later, Ryo-chan."

"But Ryo-chan wants chocolate. Can you feed me, Kei? Aaah" Ryoma replied then she opened her mouth waiting for Kei to feed her.

"Kei, I want more."

"You already finish your share, Ryo-chan."

"But I want more." She said with tears threatening to fall.

"Here, you can have my half, Ryo-chan."

"Really? I can?"

"But, you're sharing it with me. Don't eat all of it, okay?"

"Okay." Ryoma answered readily since she wanted to eat the chocolate. "Thank you, Kei! Can you feed me again?"

"You're welcome, Ryo-chan." He fed her the chocolate.

Ever since that day, whenever desserts were involved, Atobe would always give up half of his share to Ryoma, and Ryoma would always accept it happily since Ryoma could never say no to sweets. And when tidbits were involved, it became a habit that Atobe would always feed Ryoma by hand.

 **. . .**

Keigo was having the headache of his life. His and Ryoma's family were having a vacation together in Hawaii. It had been a while since they spent any time together. Ever since Ryoma moved to the US when she was 8 years old and he moved from England back to Japan the year after, it was quite hard for them to meet. It was easier when he was living in England and Ryoma was in the US since the distance wasn't too far, so they could use Atobes and Echizens' private jets to visit each other. Back to his headache, the cause for it was none other than his dearest cousin.

At the age of 12 years old, Ryoma had grown up to a very beautiful girl, with dark green hair cascading through her back and bright hazel eyes, sparkling so brightly making them almost the same as the colour gold. She was quite the sight to see with her natural beauty. She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit, but her slim and toned body (as toned as a 12 years old could be) from tennis showed her shape. And she exuded an aura of confidence that made her even more attractive.

The problem was his cousin didn't realise of her beauty and charm. She could be quite dense when it came to anything but tennis. She didn't realise just how much attention she attracted from people, be it from the same or opposite sex. It caused so much problem and headache for Keigo to see those _lecherous_ eyes looking at Ryoma like she was some kind of prey waiting to be devoured by the wolves. The worst were from the older teenage boys, who were raging with hormones at their age. And Ryoma didn't realise these stares and stayed blissfully ignorant of them. So Keigo took it upon himself to protect his innocent cousin from these people, boys especially.

He was sitting in his chair and staring daggers to those boys who dared to stare at his cousin openly and without shame. If looks could kill, those boys would probably be buried deep 100 feet below ground. He was practically growling at boys who were anywhere 10 feet near Ryoma.

"Kei, I'm going to get some ice-cream. What flavor do you want?" Ryoma shouted at him, effectively snapping him out of his glaring daggers mode. Ryoma was already on halfway to the ice-cream shop.

"Wait for me, Ryoma. I need to finish this juice first!"

"Hurry up, Kei! I'll be going first."

Kei hurriedly finished his juice and searched for his sunglasses. He put on his shades and walked to the direction his cousin just went to. He wasn't even halfway there yet, when he saw some teenage boys surrounding his cousin. He could see from their eyes the lustful intention to his cousin.

' _Damn those boys! Can't they put their eyes somewhere else?'_ He thought as he marched to his cousin.

"C'mon pretty girl, I'll buy you some ice-cream if you come with us."

"Come play with us."

"I bet you have no boyfriend right, that's why you're alone here."

He could hear them say. He hurriedly went up to them and pulled Ryoma to his side and casually put his arm around her shoulder.

"This girl is ore-sama's princess. Now what were you trying to do with her again?" He asked them with a threatening tone and the boys could feel a dangerous aura around the boy. Atobe was practically boring holes in their heads with his glare.

"Ah nothing. Umm, we have to go now, so bye." The boys, now scared for their lives, ran faster than the wind.

Ryoma simply looked disinterested with the event that just happened and ordered her ice-cream.

"One rocky road please. Ne, Kei, what flavor do you want?"

"I'll get the pistachios flavor."

"I swear you have the weirdest taste."

"Don't insult my taste please. I have the most refined and sophisticated taste, Ryoma. By the way, this is not what I want to talk about with you. Why didn't you do anything with those boys? They were clearly flirting with you!"

"They were just asking me some questions. It was nothing."

"I wouldn't call that nothing, they were totally hitting on you! They even asked you to come with them! Imagine what could have happened to you if I wasn't there, Ryoma! How could you be so careless about yourself? You should realise what those boys wanted! You could be seriously hurt." Keigo was angry seeing how Ryoma wasn't even scared for her safety.

"But you were there, Kei. I knew you would be there, so I had nothing to worry about." She said it so nonchalantly, as if she had a hundred percent faith that Keigo would be there for her.

Upon hearing this, Keigo was lost for words. He knew that he would be there in time to save Ryoma from those boys, but he didn't know that his cousin trusted him completely. He was so touched that he could feel his anger melting away. He was glad that his cousin believed in him, and he wasn't going to break her trust. He would always be there to protect her from any danger, even if they were far away from each other. He is an Atobe after all.

He could always easily hire some people to protect his cousin. Maybe some from army force or police force. Or some people who are experienced with guns. No matter, he had the whole Atobe army at his disposal.

"Besides, I can do self-defense. If anyone of them tries to touch me, I would practically kill them. That is if aniki or baka oyaji didn't try to kill them first. Sometimes I hate it how protective they are, Kei. Imagine this, one day I found that aniki tried to hire a bodyguard to escort me to school. I totally kicked aniki's butt that day."

He stopped his steps and sweatdropped at his cousin's answer. He wondered whether Ryoma was a mind-reader of something.

"Why did you stop walking, Kei? C'mon let's go back."

"Err right! Just don't do anything dangerous again, Ryoma!"

* * *

 **Important A/N: I need help guys. Give me some suggestions on how to break it to Seigaku that Atobe is Ryoma's cousin. I need suggestions on how to break it to the Seigaku and other people!**

* * *

Note how Atobe told the boys that Ryoma's his princess and Ryoma's not protesting. Yea, that's because Ryoma got used to hearing such words from him, and its only people who assumed they are together.

Do you like their interaction? I always imagine them like this. Atobe and Ryoma are just so cute

See you in two weeks or more, since I need time to write the new chapter after I get back.

xoxo,

 _riwinkle_


	15. 13: Plan

Chapter 13: Plan

I'm finally back, thank you for waiting patiently guys. To kind reviewers who gave their suggestions, I'm sorry I haven't had the time to reply to your reviews, but rest assured that I read each and every one of them! I'm just trying to think the best way. And please don't think I will break the news any time soon, I just like to think ahead.

Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry there is less fluff here. But there is Atobe here

Disclaimer: pot is not mine

* * *

It was another normal school day in Seigaku, which was characterized by murmurs and whispers of gossips and news.

Seigaku wasn't always full of hearsays. But ever since two years ago when a few very attention-worthy individuals came, namely the current third-years tennis regulars (especially Fuji and Tezuka), Seigaku had been more 'lively' so to speak. The number of fangirls the tennis regulars had was alarmig, in a sense. Where did all these girls come from and how the hell were they always present? Did they not have their own things to do but buzz around the tennis courts? And the rate these fangirls multiplied was not normal. So by the end of Tezuka's batch second year, these regulars couldn't seem to be doing anything without someone knowing, seeing how all these fangirls were always around them. And with fangirls, gossips (more like their crazy fantasies) always flew around.

Now, add the fact that there was a new outstanding freshman who possessed a stunning beauty as well as tennis skills to earn herself a spot as a regular, the school seemed to be 'livelier' than ever. The fangirls were a usual sight, but now fanboys added to the crowd as well.

Personally for the Seigaku regulars, it was a really weird sight to see. Never before in their life could they imagine their species (aka males) be squealing and 'omg'-ing like girls. It was quite a shock for them. It was plain bizarre at first, but after a while, they just got used to the sight.

But today, it wasn't all those that made the school a little noisier than usual. It had something to do with the freshman mentioned above, but it wasn't because of her skills or looks.

It was because of her famous, or infamous, 'boyfriend' who kept coming more and more often to visit her. It had been a week after that last 'breakdown' of Ryoma and Atobe had made sure she knew that he was watching her like a hawk now. Atobe came to Seigaku on a regular basis now and it was now almost a regular sight to see him in Seigaku's territory.

And every time he came, Ryoma _always_ had a big headache. She swore it was not good for her health. Not that she hated her cousin, but really Keigo could really tone down his so-called flair and flamboyant-ness. She would really like it if Keigo did not make a scene every single time he came. Must he really come in a parade of Benz-Mercedes limo? Must he always bring a bus full of fangirls with him? It wasn't like the Seigaku was lacking of noises, especially with the Seigaku regulars' fangirls around.

And Ryoma was just simply confused by the girls. Like really? She never understood what were these girls thinking. Like why would they subject themselves to do all the screaming and squealing to guys they barely know. Fangirls were just confusing. She didn't get why girls would just worship a guy they did not know in general, even if the guys were Seigaku regulars or Keigo. Her senpais were just plain nosy, annoying and noisy. What was so great about them or even worse, her cousin?

And the thing about Keigo visiting him all the time was it was annoying. Keigo would always come at the oddest timing and barged into her school as if he enrolled in it, much less owned it. Literally.

He would just barge in into the cafeteria during lunchtime and pulled Ryoma aside to make sure she had the best dishes prepared by chefs. He would constantly hover around Ryoma to make sure no girls or boys would try to come anywhere between 5 feet near her. And when he's not around, he would assign bodyguards to watch her.

Worst of all, he totally showed public display of affection, which Ryoma absolutely HATED. He would always hug Ryoma first thing he saw her and would always stick himself near her like he was glued to her.

Now, Ryoma was just sitting peacefully in the rooftop with Sakuno and her loudmouthed friend, Tomoko? Tomoyo? Tomoka? – somewhere along the line. She forgot to bring her lunch today and Sakuno had nicely offered her some of her bento, but she refused. She felt bad eating her bento. She could always buy some bread in the canteen later. Ryoma was enjoying her peaceful day because for once Kei didn't visit her. Usually his visits were always in the morning or after school, but since she knew he had a meeting with his coach that morning and then again after school, she knew he wouldn't come. So now, she was enjoying the serenity and tranquility that she had, with the wind fluttering on her face and the sun hidden by the clouds today, it was perfect condition for a nap. And so she did. She was just going to lie down when the door to the rooftop was banged loudly followed by a voice she recognised anywhere.

"RYOMA THERE YOU ARE! Do you know how long I've been looking for you?"

"KYAA ITS ATOBE! RYOMA-HIME ITS YOUR BOYFRIEND!" She heard that Tomo-something girl squealed. She winced at both of their voices.

"Ah, good afternoon ladies." Atobe said suddenly being the perfect gentleman, "Would you two mind leaving ore-sama and Ryoma alone?"

"Ah... Good afternoon Atobe-san. Of course, we shall take our leave. C'mon Tomoka-chan." And Sakuno hurriedly left dragging a squealing Tomoka (oh so that's her name) along.

"Why are you here, Kei?" She was annoyed that her beautiful nap was disturbed.

"What else, Ryo-dear? How are you hanging here? Any girls or boys come bothering you?"

" . .Kei."

"Yes yes, whatever you want," He answered totally ignoring her demand, "So answer my question."

"You answer mine first. Why are you here?"

"I told you before, I –"

"I know that. Let me rephrase the question. How can you be here? You told me you're not coming today. I know for a fact you have a meeting with your coach."

"Ah you're asking that. That's why I'm here now, at lunchtime. Cause I can't come in the morning or after school later."

"Seriously, Kei? You should stop coming already."

"No way, Ryo-chan. I don't want anything to happen to you."

She sighed hearing his answer. It wasn't that she hated the affection Keigo showered her with, but the problem was it turned people's attention to her. Her. She just wanted to have a simple school life with no fuss and graduated quietly and peacefully.

But no, Kami forbid that happened.

She swore if Keigo did not stop this school visits any time soon, she would not hesitate to put him five feet down under the ground.

And it was one thing if people talked about it, she didn't know them and they wouldn't dare bother her directly.

But her senpais was another thing.

Those damn nosy Seigaku regulars _._ Her senpais were too nosy for their own good. And she was more than a hundred percent sure those senpais would hear about Keigo's little visit today, seeing how Tomoka couldn't shut her mouth just now. Damn why couldn't she just have her peace.

Usually she would just ignore those nosy senpais' questions and disregard whatever they were saying. She would just continue to train and minimized any interaction time with them that had nothing to do besides tennis. She would slip away as fast as she could after training, but she didn't know how long she could keep doing this. Sooner or later, those seniors would hold her hostage or something.

"Okay, you see I'm fine here. So hurry up and leave, Kei."

"I haven't been here for 10 minutes and you are already chasing me out?" Keigo teased her, "My, my Ryo-chan, so much for being your cousin."

"Just…" She sighed, "Please just leave. I really want my peace today."

"You know, you're supposed to be grateful that I visit you so often. I do this to no other person, Ryo-chan."

"You should find yourself a girlfriend, I swear. Stop bothering me."

"Ore-sama is too great to settle down for one person. What will I do with my fangirls then?"

"Do I look like I give a shit about your fangirls?"

"Ryoma, language." Atobe warned her.

"Fine. But I'm serious. Stop coming here, my senpais are going to kill me with questions."

"I can take care of them for you. Besides, what will you do if your dearest cousin is not here to guard you from those evil boys and girls?"

"Don't flatter yourself too much, Kei."

"Whatever Ryo-chan. Come, let's go to canteen, the chefs are waiting there for us to eat."

"You brought your chefs again? I thought I told you I don't need chefs to cook me food."

"Don't be rude Ryo-chan. The chefs have come all the way from France to make us some nice French cuisine."

"Kei, what part of I don't need chefs do you not understand? I have my own food."

"Really? Where is it now then?"

Ryoma couldn't answer since she forgot her lunch today. Damn, did Kei know about this? And as if answering her unvoiced question,

"Yes, I know you didn't bring lunch today. Nanako-nee texted me today that you forgot about it."

Why must Nanako-nee texted him? Now she had to deal with Keigo.

Feeling hungry already, she finally relented to her cousin's demand, "Fine."

So off they went to the canteen. And as Ryoma expected, there was already a huge group of students being awed by the 'show' Atobe put up. Argh, she could already see the outcome of this little stunt Atobe pulled up. Damn her cousin for being so flamboyant.

And since she was really hungry, she just followed her cousin and sat at the table decorated with flowers, tablecloth, and other sparkly decorations to make it look like any restaurant table. Behind the table there were chefs already cooking with live demonstrations. Ryoma with no doubt believed that they were really imported from France if Atobe said so.

Needless to say, there were lots of screaming and of them.

"KYAA HIME-SAMA IS WITH HER BOYFRIEND."

"THEY LOOK SO GOOD TOGETHER. LIKE PRINCESS AND HER PRINCE."

"OMG IM GONNA FAINT!" (' _Seriously? Why would you faint over this?'_ She thought)

"PRINCESS LOOK HERE PLEASE!"

Ryoma simply ignored all the screaming behind her and just ate the sumptuous food in front of her. Even if she hated the attention Keigo brought, him coming here had its perk. She couldn't deny that the food was really nice. The meal even came with desserts, and she was not going to refuse that.

 _Ding Dong, Ding Dong_

The bell to signify the end of lunchtime rang. Kei bid her farewell and told her that he wouldn't be coming to her afternoon practice, which she knew already. And then he gave her the customary hug. There were gush and squeals, as usual, from the fangirls and fanboys. And as usual, she struggled to get free from his hug. She hated any form of pda, she told him a thousand times, but no, monkey king would always get his way. He said something about keeping suitors away from her. She swore that if Kei kept doing this, her calm and cool reputation would get tarnished – not that she knew that her reputation was actually beautiful, princess-like and cute, not calm and cool.

Ryoma walked out of the canteen to get into her next class, while giving cold glares to anyone who dared to gush about it.

 **. . .**

Meanwhile, the Seigaku's regulars did not fail to hear the little commotion that their junior created during her lunchtime with Atobe. They heard it from all the gossips flying around the school, and of course, they definitely did not fail to hear about every single one of Atobe's visits for the last whole week.

Being the nice seniors that they were, some of them – namely Kikumaru, Momoshiro and Inui – decided to take up the responsibility of Ryoma's love life onto their shoulders. They gathered all the other regulars after school in the clubroom since there wasn't any club activity today and Ryoma wouldn't come here.

"GUYS GUYS DID YOU HEAR ABOUT OCHIBI! ATOBE KEPT ON VISITING HER EVERY DAY FOR THIS WEEK! ITS UNACCEPTABLE NYA~" Kikumaru excitedly stated.

"YES I HEARD ABOUT IT EIJI-SENPAI! WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM!" Momoshiro followed.

"99.8 percent this will continue next week."

"I don't know guys, I don't think Ryoma would appreciate it if we meddle to her business." Oishi told them warily.

"Fshhh," Kaidoh agreed with their vice-captain.

"AS RESPONSIBLE SENIORS WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING! OCHIBI IS IN DANGER NYA! SHE'S NOT EVEN TALKING TO US A LOT ANYMORE NYAA"

"YES BURNING! WE NEED TO GET HER BACK, BABY!" Kawamura yelled passionately since Momoshiro sneakily gave him the racket in order to add more votes to the decision.

"Saaa… What do you think, Tezuka?" Fuji asked their captain. To be truthful, Fuji had heard all about Atobe's visits and was definitely upset about it. Just when he realised he started to like their junior, Atobe HAD to come and visit her almost everyday. He seriously wanted to do something to them, but he knew he had no right to interfere. He was no one but a senpai to her. But… If it's the team's will, well, it's another matter entirely.

"It's none of our business, guys." The captain replied stoically. "Don't poke into people's business."

"BUT TEZUKA NYAAAA. OCHIBI DOESN'T EVEN HANG OUT WITH US ANYMORE!"

"There is a 40.3 percent chance that Ryoma would get distracted by Atobe's visits which will lead to a 35.6 percent drop on Ryoma's performance. And there would 66.7 percent decrease of team's morale."

"SEE TEZUKA, ITS FOR THE TEAM ALSO NYAAA!"

Hearing this, Tezuka finally relented to the team's will.

' _It's for the best for the team.'_ He thought, but he could already feel the need to buy more painkillers for the upcoming headaches.

"Don't let your guards down, everyone!"

"HOI HOI! CMON EVERYONE LETS MAKE A SAVE-RYOMA-FROM-EVIL-ATOBE PLAN!" Kikumaru said excitedly.

* * *

I hope you guys didn't find this chapter too boring or anything. Do leave a review :)

x

violetperiwinkle


	16. 14: Plan Executed

Chapter 14: Plan Executed

I had fun writing this chapter and hopefully you guys can enjoy it, although this is a bit short.

Disclaimer: pot doesnt belong to me

* * *

" _HOI HOI! CMON EVERYONE LETS MAKE A SAVE-RYOMA-FROM-EVIL-ATOBE PLAN!" Kikumaru said excitedly._

 **1** **st** **Visit:**

Atobe just arrived in Seigaku and he was going to visit his dearest cousin, Ryoma. Ever since the breakdown that Ryoma had, he would always try to be there for his cousin. Even if meant to invade her privacy. Besides, she didn't seem to particularly hate it. She only told him to stop and threatened him in many ways, no big deal. It was almost 12pm now and Ryoma was probably in the classroom. It was going to be her lunch break soon. By now, he totally knew her schedule inside out and he knew where she was supposed to be. So he headed there. He didn't realise the noises made by a nearby bush.

"Agent Cat to all, repeat Agent Cat to all, the subject is in the building. He is heading inside, nya. Over."

In the bush, there was Kikumaru acting all agent-like. He was the spy of the group and was supposed to report whenever Atobe was in Seigaku. He was the first line of defense and everyone depended on his information in order for the plan to work. (Actually it was because he was the most excited one and forced everyone to agree for him to be the spy)

 **. . .**

Ryoma was in her classroom and was yawning without shame in front of the whole class. She just woke up from her sleep that lasted throughout the English class. It wasn't like her English teacher would mind, ever since that little scene that Ryoma did. Besides, her grades were good enough for her to not pay attention. English in Japan was so easy compared to the US. There was just 5 minutes left to the class and after that she could enjoy a peaceful lunch at the rooftop. Hopefully, her crazy cousin wouldn't come and disturb her peace today.

Finally class was over.

She stood up from her desk and was on her way to the rooftop when she was called by her English teacher,

"Echizen, can you come with me to the office. Ryuzaki-sensei left me a message that she needed you after this class."

"Hai sensei"

And so she followed her teacher to the teacher's office.

 **. . .**

Atobe was making his way to her classroom only to find that Ryoma was nowhere to be found. The only girls he found there were screaming and squealing girls who saw him. His fangirls were always so overly excited whenever he made his visit to Ryoma's classroom. But first thing first, he needed to locate his cousin. What if she was in danger that he didn't know about? So he pointed to one of the screaming girls in Ryoma's classroom – she must be her classmate, right? – and asked,

"You, have you seen Ryoma anywhere?"

The said girl squealed even louder that her idol was talking to him. But she managed to answer him in between the squeals,

"She was called by her English teacher. She's probably in the office."

Hearing this, Atobe stepped out of the classroom and made his way to the teacher's office. But even before he was halfway to the teacher's office, he was swarmed by a herd of girls and was pulled to one particular direction.

"WE FINALLY GOT HIM!"

"LETS GO TO THE CANTEEN!"

"CMON LETS CLAIM OUR PRIZE"

Atobe had no idea what was going on and how it came to this. All he knew was that he was no (wo)menhandled by these girls pulling him to the canteen.

Behind him, Fuji was seen chuckling with his eyes glinting some evilness out of them. ' _Fufufu, it wasn't such a bad idea to tell the girls whoever get Atobe to the canteen first would get a kiss from him after all. And to slip a note to the English teacher pretending to be Ryuzaki-sensei. I'm such a genius, fufufu'_

Ryoma got out of the teacher's office confused. Ryuzaki-sensei was nowhere to be found. In fact, she was at a teachers' conference in some other school, so she wasn't in school the whole day. So how did the English teacher say Ryuzaki-sensei call her? Finding no answer, she shrugged it off and went to the rooftop, all the while pondering why Keigo was nowhere to be seen today. She was sure he would come today. Maybe he had some urgent meeting in his school. Oh well, that meant she could get her deserved nap.

 **2** **nd** **Visit:**

Atobe was pissed that yesterday when he went to Seigaku, instead of meeting Ryoma, he was being pulled around by some girls who claimed he must kiss them after that. Something about winning a prize or something. So today, he had to go to Seigaku again and made sure he saw his cousin. Since he skipped yesterday's afternoon lessons and his teacher found out about it, he needed to attend today's. So he couldn't come in the afternoon. He was on the way there now to see her in her afternoon practice. It was one of those days that Hyotei did not have practice that day, so he could come visit her without worrying what his coach and teammates would say – not that he cared so much about them in the first place. He was of course followed by his loyal fangirls from both Hyotei and Seigaku. (He was there so often that Seigaku now had a fan base for him)

He was nearing the tennis courts and could see the regulars just finishing their warm up laps and were heading toward the regular courts. He saw his cousin and was heading there.

"Ryoma-chan!"

"Kei! You're here again?" She looked incredulously and was on her way to him, but,

"OCHIBI!" Kikumaru glomped her to stop her from making her way to Atobe.

"What the hell Kikumaru-senpai? Let go!"

"NYA OCHIBI DON'T BE MEAN!" Kikumaru panicked that his plan failed and looked at Momoshiro to come up with something.

"I said let go, senpai!"

"Echizen, let's have a match right now!" Momoshiro yelled to her.

"Yadda, I need to go see him right now." She answered pointing to Atobe.

"What's that, Echizen? Are you scared? Pok pok, I heard chicken."

Of course, Ryoma, being easily provoked by a challenge, was now irritated that she was called a chicken. No one called her a chicken!

"I am not scared. Kei, wait there, I'll deal with you later after I beat him."

So Atobe waited for her to finish her match, and watched as she beat her senpai to a pulp. He chuckled at this. That guy deserved it by calling her a chicken after all.

After finishing her match 6-2, she was once again on her way to where Atobe was. But of course,

"OCHIBI THAT WAS SOME GREAT GAME!" Kikumaru glomped her even tighter so she couldn't walk, or breathe, in this case.

"Eiji, let go of her! She's turning blue!"

"NO! OCHIBI WAS SO COOL NYAAAA~"

"LET ME GO KIKUMARU SENPAI!"

"Saaa… Tezuka, our freshman seems to have so much energy and not practicing instead." Fuji said to Tezuka.

"Echizen 50 laps!"

"But buchou! Why didn't Kikumaru-senpai get any laps?"

"70 laps, Echizen!"

She grumbled and ran her laps. Meanwhile, Atobe was tired of waiting but since he saw that she was fine and was nowhere near danger, he guessed he could let this slide. Besides, Ryoma wouldn't be able to punish him since she was busy running her laps.

 _Rrrriinggg…_

Atobe's phone rang and it was from Oshitari. Apparently, there was some urgent business in the tennis club right now that he needed to attend to. So he yelled to Ryoma,

"Ryo-chan, ore-sama needs to go now. I'll see you later then." And left Seigaku.

While the rest of regulars cheered silently that their plan worked.

 **3** **rd** **, 4** **th** **, 5** **th** **and so on Visits:**

Ryoma was actually kind of confused that Keigo didn't seem to bother her as much nowadays. That, and her senpais were acting so weirdly. She knew something was up with them. But since she didn't know what, she shrugged it off thinking it wasn't her business.

Little did she know, it was her senpais' doing to keep Atobe as far away as possible from her.

Inui asked one of Atobe's fangirl to give him an Inui Special Remix Juice and say it was a welcome juice specially made for him. Atobe, being the arrogant boy, received the juice and drank it, saying something along the line it was about time people treated him like royalty. And then he fainted. So, Kabaji carried him back to the limo and went back to Hyotei.

Kawamura made a scene in the canteen because Kikumaru slipped a racket to his hand and started throwing food around. This led to a huge-scale food fight between the students and made it hard for Atobe to find Ryoma. Ryoma, herself, quickly slipped away after buying her Ponta. She told herself she wouldn't be able to find Keigo there in this condition and so wasted no time to make her way to the rooftop.

Kaidoh was told by Inui and Fuji to help a girl who was carrying some flammable liquid from the chemistry lab. But since he was so anti-social, the girl got scared instead. She squeaked, dropped the liquid in her hand and ran away. Kaidoh got confused, hissed and went his way to tell his senpais that the girl ran away. And by some unknown means, the liquid caused a small explosion in the lab. It created an emergency situation and led the fire alarm to ring. All the students made their way to evacuate the building to the field. This created quite a commotion and Atobe seeing this decided he wouldn't be able to find Ryoma in that sea of students and went back to his school. Somewhere in the field, Inui told Fuji, "Percentage the girl would get scared is 89.9 percent and this would happen is 91.3 percent. Success rate of your plan plan is 100 pecent."

 **. . .**

 _In the clubroom,_

The Seigaku regulars, except Ryoma, were gathered there to discuss about their plans success rate.

"NYA WE DID IT! WE KEPT ATOBE AWAY FROM RYOMA." Kikumaru exclaimed.

"BURNING WE DID IT BABY!"

"DID YOU SEE THE GIRL'S SCARED EXPRESSION WHEN SHE SAW YOU MAMUSHI! HAHAHA" Momoshiro laughed at Kaidoh.

"WHATDIDYOUSAYBAKAIDIOT!"

"WANTTOFIGHT?!"

All of them were so excited and loud that they didn't realise a freshman standing by the door with black aura coming out of her.

"Senpais…" Ryoma growled menacingly.

Then there was silence. All heads were turned toward the door.

"Oops, ochibi?"

That day, you could hear screeching screams from the Seigaku clubroom and nobody knew what happened.

 **. . .**

Needless to say, Ryoma was bloody pissed at her seniors and gave them the silent treatment for a whole week. She was also slaughtering many non-regulars in practice time.

She was sulking. Who the hell were they to mind her business with Keigo? And to say Keigo was bad influence for her. What was wrong with her senpais? Why were they so nosy! She told them once not to meddle with her business and they still did it. And she couldn't believe that Kaidoh-senpai and buchou were in this, though she had the suspicion that they were forced out of their will.

"NYA, OCHIBI CMON WE SAID WE'RE SORRY!"

"DON'T SULK ECHIZEN. TALK TO US"

She did not give any indication that she even acknowledged their presence and had no plan to forgive them any time soon.

 **. . .**

Well, that was until she found out Karupin followed her to school because she accidentally brought Karupin's favourite toy to school.

She was pretty damn sure that it Karupin she saw in the tree outside her classroom. Ryoma went to even more panic when she heard students saying that there were 2 students seeing a Himalayan feline in the rooftop. She scrambled to the rooftop only to find it empty. She ran around the school compound to search for her cat. She didn't want to imagine what could happen to her favourite pet.

Momoshiro-senpai came along and saw her in her distressed state. He lent her his bike to go search for the cat at home.

When she went home and found no Karupin there, she got very agitated. Where could Karupin be, right now? She decided to go back to school to check once more and headed out for the door.

Only to find her seniors about to knock and saw Karupin with her senpais. She immediately fell to the floor with relief after the day she had gone through to search for that cat.

"Eh ochibi, don't fall! Are you okay, nya? We heard from Momoshiro and we all went to search for your cat!"

"Echizen, here you go."

Karupin jumped to Ryoma's welcoming arms and stayed there. She had never been so grateful that her senpais were nosy and for once realised their nosiness had its perk. Thank Kami Karupin was found.

"Arigatou, senpai-tachi."

"You're welcome nya! Does this mean we're forgiven nyaaaa?"

"…"

"Ochibi! You can't still be angry at us, nyaaaa. Forgive us nyaa"

"Only if you treat me burgers for the next 4 weeks, senpais."

"Okay nya! Momoshiro will be the one treating you!" Kikumaru went to glomp their cute freshman.

"EH EIJI-SENPAI WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE TO TREAT HER!"

"You're too loud baka."

"WHAT WAS THAT MAMUSHI!"

"Fshhhhh!"

"Guys, don't make so much noise. We're in the neighborhood, we don't want to disturb people."

And once again, balance was restored to Seigaku regulars.

* * *

Rate and review guys, leave a comment!

love,

riwinkle


	17. 15: A New Guy?

Chapter 15

Sorry I hadn't been on for so long. I'm losing motivation to write sighpie

Important to note: In my story, Ryoma is 15 years old. She moved to the US when she was 8 years old, so she had spent time in Japan for 8 years first. She had a few friends here already. Sorry to confuse you people.

* * *

"Moshi moshi?" A voice was heard on the other line of Ryoma's phone.

"Hey, it's Ryoma."

"Ri-chan!" The voice seemed very gleeful to hear Ryoma's voice. "So you're finally in Japan huh? How long will you be here?"

"Well… Actually I've been in Japan for quite a few weeks already. I'm going to Seigaku high school now. Didn't Kei tell you about it? And can you stop calling me Ri-chan already?"

"But I've been calling you Ri-chan for so long, I won't change it. And no, he didn't tell me. And you didn't either."

"I guess I was kind of busy these days. And it's not my fault you're far away in Kanagawa."

"So why did you call, Ri-chan?"

"To tell you that I'm in Japan. That, and to tell you that I'm coming to visit you. Kei just told me about your condition now. Why didn't you tell me in the emails?"

"Kei told you? I thought I told him not to."

"It wasn't his fault. He slipped up when I asked about you. So why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I didn't want to worry you."

"You know that's nowhere near a good reason."

"It's just I didn't want to tell anyone about my disease."

"I am not anyone, Sei."

"Gomen Ri-chan. So when are you coming?"

"Next Saturday. I'll come around 11am, is that fine for you?"

"Yes that's fine. Can't wait to see you again, Ri-chan. Wear something resembling a girl's cloth okay, Ri-chan?"

"Yadda!"

"Ri-chan…" The voice sounded deceivingly sweet and Ryoma knew that she was being threatened right now. Kami knew what Seiichi could do to her with his sadistic nature. Sighing, she finally answered,

"Fine. Just some shorts and top, okay Sei?"

"I really can't wait to see you again. I miss you a lot, you know."

"Miss you too, Sei. See you on Saturday."

With that, Ryoma hung up her phone. She couldn't believe that the Yukimura Seiichi was in the hospital with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. As a tennis player, she definitely knew what the disease could do to the body and she could barely imagine just how much pain Seiichi must had gone through. She just knew it yesterday when she was talking to Keigo and she asked him about Seiichi. At first, he came up with some blatantly obvious lie and after some force from her, Kei admitted that Seiichi got hospitalized. Of course, she was concerned! She immediately called up Seiichi, but he didn't pick up. So she tried again today.

Seiichi had been her and Keigo's childhood friend for more than 10 years now. The first time she met Seiichi was when she was 4 years old in one of the parties the adults usually threw. The party was in the Yukimura house. Being the few children there, she stuck to Keigo all the time and both of them were always near the desserts table, mostly because of Ryoma. And through some incidence (Ryoma being too greedy for desserts), Ryoma managed to ruin her dress by getting stains of chocolate on her dress and even dropped an ice cream to the skirt part. Needless to say, she cried and Keigo couldn't do anything. He hugged her all right, but it wasn't like he could get a new dress while they were in a party.

That's where Seiichi came in and asked her what was wrong. When Keigo explained to him, Seiichi asked them to follow him and he led them to his room. Seiichi then called on one of the house helpers who helped Ryoma cleaned the dress for her and he even lent her his home clothes to change into. The three of them chatted so much while waiting for Ryoma's dress to dry and got to know each other better. When the party was over, their parents found them in Seiichi's room huddling together asleep.

That wasn't the last time the both of them saw Seiichi. After that, they kept meeting each other at parties. After all, the Yukimuras, Atobes and Echizens dominate the business world and were bound to meet often. The three of them had been great friends due to the bond they shared from tennis and because they kept meeting each other from the boring parties (boring for children anyway). So they always found ways to entertain themselves during parties. Most of the ideas came from Seiichi, and some caused them punishments from their parents, if they got caught. But those were fun times.

When Ryoma moved to the US, she had told Seiichi about it and promised him that they would stay in touch through email. And stayed in touch, they did. But nowhere in the email did Seiichi mention about his disease. Why the hell did Seiichi hide something this big from her? He was so going to get a long lecture from her next Saturday.

 **. . .**

 _Saturday_

Ryoma was in front of the hospital Seiichi was in, with a basket of fruits as well as the latest Tennis Pro magazines in her hand. She knew Seiichi would be bored in the hospital and this would give him something to do.

She walked into the elevator and pressed the 3rd floor button and walked straight into the direction Seiichi's room. She greeted the nurses in the nurse's desk and asked the number of Seiichi's room to make sure she got it right. She went to Seiichi's room and knocked on the door before entering.

Seiichi was staring at the window, probably something outside that caught his attention, and then turned his head to the source of the sound. Upon seeing who was on the door, a soft smile graced his feature.

"Ah, Ri-chan, you're finally here."

Ryoma walked to his bedside and gave him a quick hug.

"I miss you a lot Ri-chan."

"Miss you too, Sei. Here I brought you some stuff I thought you might like."

"How thoughtful of you Ri-chan!" Seiichi genuinely looked happy and gave Ryoma a smile that reached his eyes – a smile that was always given to Ryoma and his other dearest friends.

"So, wanna tell me why I just know about this now? And how long has this been going on?" She asked while sitting next to Seiichi on the bed, making him scoot over to give Ryoma some space.

"What is _this_ you are talking about Ri-chan?" He answered with pretense innocence.

"Don't mess with me, Sei."

"Now now, calm down Ri-chan. I'll answer all your questions."

"Well, start answering."

"You're as impatient as always Ri-chan. Well I got it probably at the same time you entered your US Open."

"And you failed to mention this in the letter because…" Ryoma threateningly asked Seiichi to continue her sentence.

"I told you, I didn't want to worry you Ri-chan."

"And I told you that is nowhere near a good reason. You better come up with a better excuse, Yukimura Seiichi."

Seiichi sighed knowing that Ryoma was angry with him already. She would always call people by their full names if she were angry with them.

"Well, for starters, what would you do if you were me? You were going to enter a huge competition and I couldn't simply tell you I just got this disease. You would for sure made your way to Japan and left the US Open and …"

"You damn right I would leave the US Open!"

"Ri-chan let me finish. And I don't want to take you away from your dream. US Open has always been your dream. And secondly, my pride wouldn't allow me to tell you about it. You're a tennis player, what would you do if a doctor just told you that you wouldn't be able to play tennis for the rest of your life?"

"…"

"My pride wouldn't allow me to let you see me in this state. I don't want you to think of me as some invalid Ri-chan. I can still do many things and the doctors told me that I could have this surgery so I would be able to play tennis again."

"What's the rate, Sei?"

"But I would need some rehabilitation after that though, since …"

" . ?"

"Around 50 percent."

"WHAT! Sei, you know that's like flipping a coin. And imagine what would happen if you draw the short stick this time round."

"Ri-chan…"

"No Sei. You cannot do this to me. You cannot just tell me about this disease when you had it over months already. You cannot just tell me that you are going through a surgery with a rate less than 50 percent. Do you even see as a friend, Sei?!"

"Calm down, Ri-chan."

"Don't tell me to calm down! How could you calmly decide you are going to take the surgery that could change your whole life?"

"But I have to take it Ri-chan. Even if there is a 1 percent chance that I could be cured, I would take it. You're a tennis player Ri-chan. You get it, right?"

Ryoma understood. She was a tennis player and she wouldn't want to know how it felt to not be able to play tennis. But if she ever got this disease, she knew she would do whatever it took to cure her, just like what Sei was doing right now.

"Fine."

Seiichi was glad Ryoma finally understood and accepted his decision. It wouldn't be too good if Ryoma were to make enemy with him. She was scary when angry and she would definitely be upset about him. And he wouldn't even want to think of the consequences that he would get from her family if he made her really upset.

He hugged her tightly,

"Thank you Ri-chan. I know you would understand."

For Ryoma's part, she hugged him back and promised herself to always be there for her friend throughout this whole ordeal.

"I'll be there to support you always, Sei."

"BUCHOU?!"

"ECHIZEN?!"

 _Crash… Bang…_

Both of them quickly let go of each other and looked toward the source of the noise. She saw the three Rikkai Dai regulars that she met the other day in the arcade with their other teammates. Marui burst his chewing gum and was gaping like a fish out of the water. Kirihara was beyond shocked. He dropped all the plastic bags he had been carrying and stared at the both of them. The others seem shocked, but they were mature enough to conceal their shock.

Then a silver haired guy with rat tail on his back seemed to put something inside Marui and Kirihara's mouths.

"AHHH SPICY! What the hell Niou-senpai! Wait forget that, what are you doing to our buchou, Echizen?" Kirihara snapped out of his state and demanded answers straightaway.

"Puri"

"Ryoma-chan, why are you here with buchou!" Marui added into the questions.

"Minna-san, calm down. We're in a hospital, remember?" Yukimura tried to calm his teammates down before the nurse came here and chased them out.

"Everyone, shut up!" Sanada commanded them and it seemed to work. "Now, don't bother Yukimura too much. He is still sick."

"I'm feeling better now Sanada, but thank you. Everyone please take a seat first and then we'll answer your questions."

So everyone in the Rikkai Dai took a seat. Some sat nearer to Yukimura and Ryoma, namely Marui, Kirihara and Jackal (he's there to supervise that these two didn't do anything to their captain). While others took a seat on the sofa, except for Sanada who remained standing.

"Ah that's better. I'm so glad you come to visit me, guys."

"No problem buchou. That's our job as a team anyway." The rat-tailed guy answered with a smirk on his face. Ryoma did not like that smirk he had.

"So, buchou can you tell us what's going on?"

"Nothing much."

"What do you mean nothing much? You were hugging with Ryoma-chan just now!" Marui exclaimed, "Ryoma-chan, how did you know Yukimura anyway?"

"Oh my God, are you buchou's girlfriend?!" Kirihara shouted.

"EH, I can't believe you have a boyfriend already Ryoma-chan! How could you Ryoma-chan?" Marui exclaimed louder and went to a corner, depressed, to grow some mushroom.

"What the hell?" Ryoma could only stared at disbelief of how similar hers and Keigo's tennis teams were to Seiichi's. They were so loud and always made the wrong assumption.

"Wow buchou, I didn't know you already had a girlfriend." Niou whistled cheekily.

"Niou, that was rude." Yagyuu the ever gentleman reprimanded him.

"Guys, its rude to not introduce yourself to her." Yukimura reminded his team.

Then a guy with brown hair and closed eyes (' _What's with people and closing their eyes?'_ , Ryoma thought) talked, "My name is Renji Yanagi, I'm from Rikkai Dai tennis regulars."

"And I'm Niou Masaharu. Nice to meet you puri"

"Yagyuu Hiroshi at your service, Miss."

"Sanada Genichirou."

"Well, Akaya, Marui and Jackal, aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"We met her already buchou! Right Echizen?" Kirihara said excitedly again (for some unknown reason).

"Really now? That's interesting. You never told me you met my tennis regulars, Ri-chan."

"I forgot they were your teammates, Sei."

"They are calling me each other by first name, Jackal-senpai! I knew it, you're buchou's girlfriend."

"NOOOO" Marui screamed louder.

"It's a good addition for my data."

"Puri…"

"Sei, do something." Ryoma was getting tired of all the misunderstandings that she got from the tennis teams. How could people from tennis be the same all around?

"BUCHOU I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T TELL US ABOUT HER!"

"RYOMA-CHAN, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE BUCHOU'S GIRLFRIEND!"

"Ano, minna-san, that's not the case." Yukimura tried to explain but his voice was drowned by Kirihara and Marui's screamings.

"YOU GUYS THIS IS A HOSPITAL AND YOU ARE MAKING TOO MUCH NOISE. EVERYONE OUT!" The head nurse came inside the room and shouted to the Rikkai team.

"But we didn't make so much noise and we were…" Kirihara tried to make some excuse.

"OUT. NOW." The nurse wouldn't have it. These boys were always noisy whenever they came to visit Yukimura, but this time round, it was beyond the normal level. She already heard complaints from surrounding room. She kicked all the boys out, leaving Ryoma behind.

"Eh no fair! Why does Echizen get to stay!" Kirihara started whining like a baby, "Just because she's buchou's girlfriend, she got special treatment."

"Well that girl wasn't making as much noise as you did when she came in. She had been there for more than half an hour before you came and we didn't hear complaints like when you were there. So out to all of you!"

"TARUNDORU!" Sanada was beyond furious with his teammates' actions that caused them to be chased out of the hospital. He gave the perpetrators slaps in their faces.

Thus, the Rikkai Dai teams got chased out of the hospital, leaving Ryoma and Yukimura behind in the room.

"Sei, I can't believe your teammates are like that. How do you handle them?" She sighed looking at Rikkai's behavior. And she didn't even get the chance to correct their assumptions because of the nurse kicking them out. She just hoped this wouldn't create too much trouble for her in the future.

* * *

What do you think guys?

My next chapter might take some more time since I'm experiencing writer's block. Sorry guys, please be patient

x,

violet


	18. 16: Shopping Part 1

Chapter 16: Shopping Part 1

Hi guys, I'm back. I would like to give a very huge thank you for those people who stick by the story even though I'm updating it at an irregular pace and even stopped writing it for a while. Thank you so much for the people who review this story and give me a lot of encouragement as well as give suggestions. Do know that I read each and every review.

I'm going to stop writing 'distraction' chapters after this and maybe focus more on the storyline so that I can finish the story. Right now, I'm just trying my best to finish this story and not leave it halfway. I really hope you guys enjoy reading it. I have no idea whether you guys actually enjoy this type of chapter that doesn't really contribute to the main story but has a lot of fun and distractions in it. Maybe I'll just focus more on the story line now.

Please bear with me and my slow updates, and do hope I don't lose motivation halfway. I totally have so much respect to those writers who keep constantly updating their stories.

Anyway, here's another chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Pot doesn't belong to me

* * *

 _Friday_

It was just another usual day in the Echizen's household.

"AAAA I'M LATE! WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP ANIKI?!" Ryoma's shout could be heard while she was running down the stairs with her uniform somewhat on. The blouse was wrongly buttoned and her skirt wasn't even zipped up all the way yet. Her hair was like a bird's nest, definitely her bed hair. But her appearance was the least of her worry.

"It was your own fault," Ryoga snickered, "I did try you know. You just wouldn't wake up."

"Ryoma-chan, we made Japanese breakfast today. Come have your breakfast." Nanako told her when she reached the kitchen.

"I'm late Nanako-nee!" she hurriedly grabbed a toast and dashed out of the kitchen. She regretted waking up late and now she had to miss the wonderful Japanese breakfast her cousin made. When she reached the mirror near the door, she was horrified with what she saw. "ARGH, aniki why didn't you tell me I looked horrible!"

"I thought that's how you always look." Ryoga laughed while walking out the door himself.

Ryoma hurriedly fixed her uniform as well as her hair – she ponytailed it as usual. And then she ran to school.

' _That Ryoma, she need to change her bad habit.'_ Nanako sighed seeing her cousin always late almost everyday.

 **. . .**

And it was just another day in Seigaku as well.

' _Phew, I'm glad I made it.'_ She thought as the first school bell chimed.

"KYAA ITS HIME-SAMA!"

And again, Ryoma was being bombarded with squeals and shouts from her fan girls and boys when she arrived. She immediately ran to the school hall and straight to her classroom – after changing her shoes. She swore she definitely needed a break from all those fans. Didn't they have anything better to do that swarmed her every morning?

"Good morning class!" Her math teacher entered the class and greeted them, making Ryoma dismissed any thought of her 'fans'.

 **. . .**

Ryoma slept throughout most of the classes and her teachers could only shake their heads at her behavior. It was now the end of school day.

Ryoma got up from her desk and went to the tennis courts for practice. It was the last practice for the week. Since tournament was still months away, Seigaku didn't have practice in the weekend. So at least, she could enjoy her weekend doing nothing, or she could always extort her aniki to treat her some dessers.

Practice went as usual as well, with her seniors still bombarding her with endless questions on Atobe, to which she all but ignored. She played a practice match with Momoshiro-senpai, and beat him 6-3, again. She was pretty sure Momo-senpai had his pride hurt losing to her for so many times. Oh well, it wasn't her problem. She wasn't the one who lost.

After practice, she went home despite the offer (or forced offer by Kikumaru-senpai) by Momo-senpai to treat her hamburger. She was too lazy to handle the bunch of Seigaku seniors, they could be more than a handful after all. She reached her limit when she had to handle the Rikkai regulars last week. There could only be so much craziness she could handle.

 _Echizen's household_

"Ryoma! You're finally home!" A voice welcomed her, a voice that wasn't supposed to be here. Did she hear it right? She knew whom the voice belonged to, but she was sure the owner wasn't supposed to come here for at least another month or something.

"Ka-san?"

"Yes, I miss you so much!" Rinko walked out of the kitchen and hugged her only daughter tightly.

"Get off, ka-san!"

"C'mon don't be so mean to your mother Ryoma-chan. I haven't seen you in months, okay?"

Both of them walked into the kitchen area and sat on the chairs.

"What are you doing here, ka-san? I thought you said Kevin's case wouldn't be finished for another month or something."

"Well, your mother is the most skilled lawyer in Japan not for nothing. I found a loophole in their defense and I won the case earlier. That, and because I heard a friend of mine passed away. So I decided to come here to attend his funeral."

"Does this mean Kevin is here too?" Ryoma was not too eager to meet Kevin. He always teased her nonstop, although she kind of missed him.

"No, Kevin is coming in another 2 weeks. He needed to finalize his transfer to your school. He just needed to sign some papers and he's going to fly here soon."

"Oh that's goo- wait! My school?! You mean Seigaku?"

"Of course, what else did you expect? He's going to attend school with you."

"Can't he attend Rikkai or Hyotei!"

"He insisted on going to your school. Besides Seigaku is nearer to our house, Ryoma-chan."

"Fine." She didn't want to imagine how much teasing she was going to get from Kevin if he ever heard the stupid rumours, or how much he would laugh at her if he saw the number of 'fans' she had here. Oh well, at least Kevin could help her hide from her fans, despite the obvious reward he would expect in exchange.

"Now Ryoma-chan, what is it that you're wearing?" Rinko gave her a disapproving look seeing her daughter in shorts and tshirt.

"What's wrong with this? I just got back from tennis practice."

"You could have worn a skirt and some cute tops you know."

"Ka-san, you know they are not comfortable."

"Nanako," Rinko turned her head to Nanako, "does Ryoma always wear this kind of boy-ish clothes while I was away?"

Ryoma immediately gave Nanako-nee her most powerful puppy eyes and shake her head to signal Nanako-nee to tell her mother that she definitely did not always dress like this. She could already imagine where this conversation was heading if Nanako-nee said yes.

"Yes," Nanako didn't get her signal. That and Nanako agreed that Ryoma needed to be more feminine as well, "She always wore shorts, tshirts, and her jacket, even on weekend. I've told her to wear more skirts, but she refused."

"Ryoma-chan…" Rinko smiled sweetly to her daughter. Too sweetly.

"But ka-san…" Ryoma whined, "Tshirts and shorts are more comfortable and convenient than skirts and frilly tops."

"Oh no young lady, we talked about this. Don't you give me the same argument as last time. We agreed that you would wear more feminine clothes if I let you play tennis. C'mon let's look at your wardrobe. I'm sure we can fix them." Rinko pulled Ryoma to her room to check her clothes.

As expected, Rinko was more than horrified looking at her daughter's wardrobe. The first things that greeted her were all tshirts and shorts. All those dresses that she bought for her daughter last time were all in the back of the wardrobe, full of dust and forgotten, and probably too small for her by now.

"We are going shopping tomorrow and you cannot say no, young lady. And we definitely need to find a dress for Ryoko's party next week."

"Ka-san…"

"You are not getting your way out of this one, Ryoma-chan."

Ryoma sighed in defeat. She knew she would never win against her mother. This weekend was just going to be hell for her. She was not looking forward to shopping with her mother. All those thousand of shops with their pink and girly theme her mother would drag her to as well as all those dresses, skirts and tops with those laces and frills that she had to try for a millionth time before her mother decided on what to buy.

 **. . .**

 _The next day,_

"Ryoma-chan, wake up. Hurry, we need to go shopping."

Ryoma woke up with a dreadful feeling. She was so not happy being forced out of her will to go shopping. She dragged herself to the shower and got dressed, in shorts and tshirt as usual. It was probably one of the last times she could wear those, so why not cherish the moment?

When she entered the kitchen to eat breakfast, her mother had just stood up from her chair and was in a call with someone.

"You're finally ready, Ryoma-chan. Give me a minute," Rinko said in between her conversation on the phone before heading out of the room. There was a noticeable frown on her face.

Ryoma simply sat down on her chair and saw that today was western breakfast. She was going to have the worst weekend of her life and she still had to eat this breakfast? Why couldn't her mother take pity on her?

"Nanako-nee, why is it western breakfast again?"

"We had Japanese yesterday, remember? You were late and you just grabbed a toast." Came the answer from Nanako.

Ryoma cursed her luck for waking up late yesterday. Now she was stuck with her western breakfast. She didn't reply her cousin and ate the food grumpily. She hoped this wasn't a sign of how the day was going to be.

After a half an hour or so, her mother came inside the kitchen with a distinct look of discontentment.

"We've got a problem, Ryoma-chan," she turned her head to her daughter, "I can't accompany you to go shopping today. I have urgent business in the office."

Ryoma's face literally lit up upon hearing what her mother had just said. She thanked Kami that He was still on her side. If her mother couldn't make it, that meant this whole shopping thing was cancelled. Her mother couldn't possibly let her do all the shopping alone because Ryoma would definitely buy more tshirts and shorts and her mother knew it. She silently cheered, so not to make her mother more upset.

"That's okay, ka-san. I don't mind postponing this shopping thing to another week." Ryoma replied with her sweetest voice.

"Oh no, young lady, just because I can't make it doesn't mean you're not going."

"But I thought you can't make it, and I know Nanako-nee has a club meeting later."

"Yes I'm aware of that."

"That means I won't need to – "

"I've made some arrangements of my own, Ryoma-chan. There will be someone to accompany you shopping. You definitely need new clothes and you're going to have it by the end of this week."

"Who did you ask to –"

 _Ding Dong_

The bell to the Echizen's household rang.

"Ah, just in time! That must be your company for today, Ryoma-chan." Rinko announced cheerfully and walked toward the door.

Ryoma did not want to imagine whom her mother would invite. Her mother could do anything and she had a lot of influential people that she knew. Ryoma would not be surprised if it were some famous fashion designer or stylist assigned by her mother. But they wouldn't understand her taste of comfortable and convenient clothes and they would pick her all those girly and frilly clothes. She definitely would be going to hate this shopping trip even more, if that was even possible.

"Brat, are you ready?"

There was only one person who called her 'brat' and she prayed to Kami it wasn't him. She would rather go with those stupid designer or stylist now.

"Be awed by kindness to accompany you shopping okay, brat?"

"Shut up, monkey king."

Keigo came into the kitchen and her view with some frivolous clothes that she wouldn't be caught dead on, even if she was a boy.

"Ryoma-chan, I've asked Keigo to accompany you and he kindly agreed to this sudden arrangement. Now, just listen to Keigo in the shopping trip, okay? I do not want to hear anymore protest from you, understood?"

"Hai, ka-san." Ryoma answered weakly because she knew her mother would get what she wanted in the end. There was no use arguing with her.

She started walking toward the front door, dragging Keigo along with her. "C'mon Kei, let's get this done and over with."

"Wait a minute young lady."

Ryoma swore she hated it when her mother called her young lady or use that tone with her. It just meant her mother had something evil (at least for her) planned for her.

"What is it, ka-san?"

"You're not thinking of going out in that outfit, are you?" Rinko asked incredulously while pointing disapprovingly to her clothes.

"Well, yeah."

"Oh no you don't. C'mon, let's go upstairs and change to better clothes."

"But ka-san…" Ryoma started protesting but immediately shut up when she was her mother's glare. "Fine."

 **. . .**

Ryoma swore she hated this shopping trip already and it had only been 10 minutes since she entered her first shop, The something Pink and something something Princess – she couldn't care less what the name of the store was. All she knew was that she hated this shop already. What the hell was Keigo thinking bringing her to all frills and all pink shop? And what was worse was she couldn't believe that her mother, Nanako-nee, and Keigo (that traitor!) forced her to wear something so girly. Her pout was getting longer. Her mood was getting worse by the minute.

"C'mon Ryoma, don't pout so much. You look great in that clothes you know." Keigo teased his cousin. Keigo knew Ryoma hated her girly clothes she was in now. But to Keigo, it wasn't as girly as he wanted her. She was in a sky blue turtle-neck top with a white shorts that stopped at her mid-thigh. He would love it more if Ryoma had worn a skirt, but she just had to shout very loudly, refusing to wear anything that was not her school skirt. He swore, at this rate, Ryoma might as well be a boy. But if there's one thing he couldn't deny was that she looked gorgeous in those clothes. It was simple, but as usual her natural beauty and confidence overpowered the clothes she was in.

"Can we just finish this as fast as we can, Kei? I don't want to be here any minute longer than I have to." Ryoma started her protest after half an hour in the shop and they hadn't agreed on even one article of clothes to try on.

"If you hadn't argued on which clothes to try on, we wouldn't be here long, Ryoma."

"But you purposely chose the frilly and pink clothes!"

"Fine, fine. Let's try again. But we definitely have to find a dress for mum's party."

"Can't I just wear my black dress last year?"

"Ryoma!" Keigo was horrified hearing that question, as if it was forbidden to be asked, "You've worn that dress a thousand times! We need to find a new one!"

"I've just worn it twice!"

"And that is more than one. It's horrible enough you wore it twice, you can't wear it thrice!"

Ryoma sighed in defeat. She knew this trip would be a very long trip.

 **. . .**

"Hello?" Fuji answered his phone as the caller ID showed it was Kikumaru Eiji calling.

"FUJIKO! YOU HAVE TO COME HERE QUICK! RYOMA IS ON A DATE WITH ATOBE!"

"INUI-SENPAI, IM NOT KIDDING! SHE IS REALLY ON A DATE!" Momoshiro's voice was heard in the background, probably doing the same thing Eiji was doing.

"Hurry come here okay! I'll text you the address! I need to call everyone else now! Bye! Momo, have you called Oishi yet? You call Kaidoh after this, okay!"

 _Click_

Eiji hung up his call, leaving a confused Fuji behind.

* * *

Yes, cliffhanger! Sorry guys. But I will try to finish the next chapters soon.

xoxo

periwinkle


	19. 17: Shopping Part 2

Chapter 17

A big thank you for all the new followers, favourites and reviewers. Love you guys a lot. You guys are the motivation I'm still continuing this story, despite the urge to stop.

Just to explain first, in this story, Echizen and Atobe are filthy rich. Like filthy crazy rich. So they would have a lot of society events such as fund raising galas, balls and many more.

And if you ask me why I made them rich, the answer is because I feel like it. Some of the Seigaku regulars would probably be in the same level as Echizen and Atobe as well.

* * *

" _Hello?" Fuji answered his phone as the caller ID showed it was Kikumaru Eiji calling._

" _FUJIKO! YOU HAVE TO COME HERE QUICK! RYOMA IS ON A DATE WITH ATOBE!"_

" _INUI-SENPAI, IM NOT KIDDING! SHE IS REALLY ON A DATE!" Momoshiro's voice was heard in the background, probably doing the same thing Eiji was doing._

" _Hurry come here okay! I'll text you the address! I need to call everyone else now! Bye! Momo, have you called Oishi yet? You call Kaidoh after this, okay!"_

 _Click_

 _Eiji hung up his call, leaving a confused Fuji behind._

* * *

Fuji was definitely more than annoyed to receive that call from Eiji. No, it wasn't because Eiji disturbed his rare days of no-practice. He was used to Eiji popping out of the blue in his home or calling him at the most random times. Eiji was Eiji, he could never be annoyed with the redhead.

What annoyed him this time was the news Eiji brought with him.

Ryoma and Atobe. On a date. Again?

It wasn't like it was his business. Yet, every time someone mentioned Ryoma and Atobe in the same sentence, he got upset. And he knew he wanted to know more about Ryoma and he probably got upset because someone was stealing his kohai's attention from him.

But what was wrong with him? There was something definitely wrong with him. He got more emotional nowadays whenever the name Ryoma popped up. His thoughts were always full of his cute kohai. All day long. He wanted to talk more and intreract more with her. He wanted to always be near her, and teased her all the time. It couldn't be denied that Ryoma had the most amusing reactions to his teasing and he was more than welcoming to those reactions. It was so unusual of him to take a great interest on a girl and it was the first time something like this ever happened.

Ever since the incident in the park's swing where he stumbled upon a crying Ryoma, his head was always full of her. He remembered the sense of protectiveness that he felt when seeing her dejected on a swing. He felt a slight pang on his heart and he wanted to cheer her up so much. He remembered how his heart beat faster and how his breath seemed to stop when she gave him a beautiful dazzling smile as a thank you. She was confusing and challenging. There was something more behind that façade she put up to people. There was something more to an Echizen Ryoma. Way more. And he had been dying to find out what.

He also remembered the annoying jealousy that he felt when Ryoma decided to call on Atobe to take her home from the park instead of taking up his offer to go to his house.

' _No one is allowed to take his Ryo-chan away from him. Wait… Did he just call Ryo-chan his?'_

' _So why have I been paying so much attention to Ryoma? Maybe its because I –,'_ Fuji stopped his thoughts halfway, with his eyes half opened. ' _That has to be it. How interesting.'_ He laughed quietly at his revelation and closed his eyes back.

Now was the time for him to meet the other regulars for some 'safe and harmless trailing'.

 **. . .**

"Good morning and welcome to the Periwinkle boutique, Atobe-bocchama and hime-sama."

"Ah, good morning. Be awed my ore-sama's generosity to visit your store."

This time, they entered a high end looking boutique and were greeted by rows of staff bowing their heads to them. Ryoma could definitely see the luxuriousness oozing out of the store design. They had just finished their 'raids' on their 3rd store. So far, all the clothes she tried on and bought were casual clothes. Clothes that she wouldn't mind wearing, amidst a little forced. But this. She knew what kind of store this was, and the clothes they were selling. This is the kind of store that she wouldn't be caught dead going to, lest she wore something from it.

"Kei, what are we doing here? Aren't we done yet? We are already in our 4th store. And look at the amount of clothes we bought!" Ryoma whined like a 5-years-old while pointing to the mountain of shopping bags their (well, Kei's) bodyguards were holding.

"We have only covered casual clothes, home clothes and pajamas so far. We haven't even gone to semi-formal, formal, smart casual, …"

"Why do we even need so many?! Are they all that different?"

"Ryoma, you're a girl. You have to understand these things sooner or later. There are a lot that a girl needs and clothing is just one of the many things. As a proper and prim lady being raised by … "

"Fine, save your speech Kei. Let's just hurry up and finish."

"Let's go find your formal dresses first. With your lack of fashion sense, we definitely need to find classy dresses that don't need so many accessories to go with. This would help you later on. And let's see, how many dresses you would need? 1, 2, 3," Keigo started counting in his head how many parties he usually went to, "… 18, 19,... Okay, we probably need to buy 20 dresses or more. Maybe 25 to be on the safe side. "

"25 DRESSES?! Why would I need so many, Kei! I don't even remember going to more than 5 parties last year."

"Tsk, tsk, my dear ignorant cousin. You are an Echizen and I am an Atobe. We both know our names carry some significance in the upper society. And those 25 dresses are only for the first half of the year. We would need to go shopping again at a later time. Last year, you were in the US and you somehow managed to convince uncle and auntie to skip those parties. But this year, Ryoma, you are in Japan. Do you even know how many relatives and business associates your parents have in Japan? Not to mention, you will have to be presented to the society soon, with this year _debutante_ ball."

"A what party? And what the hell, Kei? What do you mean I have to be presented?! I am not an antique!"

"Ryoma, debutante ball is a tradition that has been running for more than 100 years. You will not and cannot skip your way out of this one. I'm sure Aunt Rinko will agree with me."

"But we definitely do not need 25 dresses right!"

"Trust me on this Ryoma, I have been going to all the social events that our society has, okay? But I guess you're right. We can just buy 5 dresses first, and we'll have some tailor made dresses and others we'll buy them from fashion shows and runways if the occasion ever arises. And I'm sure people would be giving you dresses as presents."

"I'm pretty sure I would be happier if they give me tennis equipment instead."

"You're going to be a lady soon, Ryoma. Act like one, please."

"Let's just get this done and over with, Kei."

The staffs seemed to sweatdrop at the cousins' behavior. They probably had never seen a girl adamantly refused to buy dresses. Usually, it was the other way around. Girls wanting to buy more dresses and begging their companions to let them buy more. But since they were professional staffs, all of them managed to hide their expressions of amusement and dismay.

"So how may we assist you, miss…?" One of the head staff asked her and Keigo.

"Oh, ore-sama is here with Echizen Ryoma. She needs some dresses for this year's parties."

At her name being mentioned, the staffs seemed to be more alert. They knew how big and influential the Echizen family was. They were as big, if not bigger, as the Atobe. As staffs that worked at a high-end boutique, they were trained to memorise the names of influential families in Japan, and Echizen was in the list, somewhere near the top. Although, they knew the Echizen wasn't as extravagant as the Atobe and some other wealthy family. They tend to be more humble and spend less money on things, which was probably why the staffs did not even recognize the Echizen heir when she walked into the store.

"Don't worry, we would help you with your every need, Echizen-hime. We have hired professional stylist in this store to help you with your wardrobe needs." The head staff put on her best smile and sweetest tone, "Now, if both of you would please follow me. We would start with consultation with the stylist first."

' _Consultation? Why would you need consultation with a stylist? It isn't a wedding or anything. I'm just here to buy dresses. What the…'_ Ryoma thought in her head.

"We need to see the stylist first so he knew your taste and could suggest dresses accordingly. You wouldn't want to end up with princess-y and frilly gowns, right Ryoma?" Keigo explained to her, as if reading her mind.

"Hn."

 **. . .**

"They just went inside that high-end boutique! What the hell?" Momo yelled incredulously.

"Don't yell so loud, baka. You're making us deaf, here!"

"What did you say, mamushi!"

"Iiee data… Ryoma went to Periwinkle Boutique at this time and this date with the Atobe Keigo," Inui was scribbling furiously.

"Nya, I told you guys! Ochibi's on a date with Atobe! Look at her clothes, she even wore nicer clothes than usual! She's definitely on a date, nya!"

"Guys, I don't know, we shouldn't pry to her business like – BURNING! WE HAVE TO STOP THEM, BABY!" Kawamura was shouting after Kikumaru slipped a racket to his hand.

Oishi, as the mother hen, was trying to placate everyone to keep calm because they were attracting attention. He regretted not having Tezuka here by his side. Only Tezuka could control the team. When Kikumaru tried to call him, Tezuka picked up and immediately hung up when he said something about a date. When Kikumaru tried to call him the second time, Tezuka rejected his call.

"I don't think they will finish any time soon. I mean they take at least an hour for each store they went to. Let's go grab a bite first, I'm starving nyaaa. It's already 3pm and we haven't had lunch, nyaa." Kikumaru whined as his stomach grumbled in protest.

"Eiji's right. C'mon minna, let's have our lunch first." Fuji agreed.

So all the regulars went to a newly opened burger shop near the area that was recommended by a lot of reviews. Momoshiro had an eating contest with Kaidoh because Kaidoh insulted how greedy Momoshiro was, and Momoshiro remarked how unmanly Kaidoh by only eating one burger and fries. Oishi was trying to stop them from making too much noise, although it was a futile attempt as Kikumaru tried to join in the fun. Kawamura and Fuji simply watched them in amusement, Fuji especially.

After satisfying their stomach needs, all of them went back to the high end-boutique and hid in the bush in front of the store only to see that Ryoma and Atobe hadn't even left from the place.

"Nya, why are they taking so long? How many clothes are they buying, nya?"

"Eiji, Ryoma's a girl. Girls need a lot of clothes and take a lot of time shopping. Doesn't your sister do the same?" Oishi tried to placate his partner.

"My sister doesn't shop at this type of store nyaaa."

"LOOK THEY'RE COMING OUT!" Momoshiro suddenly exclaimed. True to his claim, Ryoma and Atobe finally went out of the store with the bodyguards seem to be carrying more bags than before. Ryoma was sulky and pouting, while Atobe was trying to talk to her, probably pacifying her.

"Lower down your voice, baka. They might hear us."

"What was that mamushi!"

Fuji was seething with anger, now that he had that revelation earlier in the day. He definitely wanted to do something to break them up.

"Don't be an idiot mamushi!"

"You are the idiot, baka porcupine head!"

"What did you say? Wanna fight is it?"

And the 2 juniors seemed to not be able to stop fighting this time, probably because Tezuka wasn't there to stop both of them. Oishi was trying hard to break them apart, but he was failing miserably. The both of them were pushing each other now.

Seeing this, Fuji simply gave a quick and harmless push to Momoshiro, who fell forward onto Kaidoh. Both of them fell and made a loud noise, definitely attracting Atobe's and Ryoma's attention. Momoshiro who didn't realise that Ryoma was looking his way started blaming Kaidoh for pulling him and Kaidoh retorted back. They didn't see the seething Ryoma behind them who was coming their way.

"You pulled me, baka!"

"No I didn't, don't be retarded stupid."

"What did –"

" Senpai-tachi, what are you doing here?"

Momoshiro and Kaidoh could feel black aura behind them. They stopped their arguments and slowly turned their heads back to see a furious Ryoma with her knuckles cracking.

"Care to explain?" She pushed for some answers with emphasis on each word.

"AH NYA. We didn't do anything nya. We definitely weren't stalking you and Atobe on a date nya."

"I'm on a what? Senpai tachi…." Ryoma growled.

"Nothing nyaaa. C'mon guys, let's go to our thing, nyaaaa."

And all the regulars ran for their lives that day.

 **. . .**

With the regulars interfering their shopping plan, Ryoma was in no mood to continue – not like she had the mood before. But now, her mood was double as bad. Atobe, realizing this, stopped the trip short and asked her to go eat in a café instead to placate his cousin's mood.

"C'mon Ryoma, let's go eat at that Violet Café. I heard they have some of the best chocolate pie."

"Hn."

To be honest, Ryoma was actually a bit relief that those seniors of hers showed up so that she had a reason to cut the trip short. She didn't think she could handle another shop of the same caliber as the last one. She tried on hundred of dresses, all of which made her looked ridiculous – but Atobe and the staffs didn't think so. Although Ryoma was doubtful about the staffs' opinion, she meant, they were paid to tell the customers they looked good in the store's clothes, even if they weren't.

But she was definitely more furious that her seniors stalked her for the whole entire day. What the hell were they thinking? Why were they so nosy for Kami's sake? She sighed and simply followed Atobe to the limo.

' _Well at least I'm going to eat good food after this.'_

* * *

Fuji finally had the revelation! I'm sure you guys all know what kind of revelation Fuji had! *wink*

Hooray I'm done with another chapter. See you guys in the next chapter.

Lots of love,

~riwinkle


	20. 18: Another Shopping Trip!

Chapter 18

 **A/N:** Review more for me please. The last chapter only got me 2 reviews and I'm so confused whether you guys are still reading and liking this story. Cause right now, _you readers and reviewers are the only reason I'm continuing_ this story since I'm getting busy nowadays. I have had the mind to stop the story halfway.

Disclaimer: Pot is not mine

* * *

"What do you mean we have to go shopping again, Kei?" Ryoma adamantly refused to entertain her cousin's crazy suggestion and protested vehemently, "I am not going anywhere near that shopping district for the next 2 years anymore. Do you know how much suffering I had when – "

"Stop being such a drama queen Ryoma-chan. You weren't even suffering that much, okay," Keigo cut off her speech. He swore Ryoma could be very talkative when she wanted to be or when she was comfortable with a person already. Well at least, talkative to her standard, which was anything consisted more than 2 sentences. He continued his explanation, "We are going to go shopping for mum's gift for her birthday party next week. I haven't bought anything yet, and I guarantee it probably won't even cross your mind until the day before."

"Oh. You should have said that earlier." Ryoma pulled her cap down to hide her embarrassment.

"That's why you shouldn't cut a person's speech before he finishes."

"Hn."

"So, what are you still sitting on the bed for? C'mon get up and change."

"Can't I just wear this, Kei? I mean I'm in shorts and tshirt already!"

"Ryo-chan, remember what Rinko-ba-san said last time? Do you want me to call her?"

"I swear I don't even know why you're my cousin, Kei. I hate you." Ryoma grumbly stood up and went to her closet in Kei's room. (Yes she had a closet full of her belonging in Kei's room).

"C'mon don't be in such a bad mood, Ryo-chan. I'll treat you that chocolate parfait you have been dying to try from Lavender Café."

"You win this time, Kei." Ryoma's mood instantly brightened up upon hearing the words 'treat' and 'Lavender Café'.

 **. . .**

Fuji was enjoying his revelation right now. He actually enjoyed the new emotions he was having. It was new, but it certainly wasn't unpleasant. Since he had realised it, he felt freer and everything seemed to make more sense. And now he definitely needed to come up with a plan on how to make Ryoma-chan his and no one else's.

' _Saaa… I guess spending some time in the park would help me come up with new ideas. Being all cooped up at home certainly wouldn't help.'_

Fuji went out of his house to have a little stroll in the park, not forgetting to bring his camera along. He would certainly be able to find interesting things to photograph at. He needed some new pictures to add onto his collections anyway.

So there he was right now, in a busy street of Tokyo going to a park. He noticed the stares girls (and guys, if they thought he was a girl) gave him whenever they saw him. Some daring girls even tried to flirt with him, like winking at him or giving him _that_ look. He ignored all of them of course.

But this made him remembered his first meeting with Ryoma. He didn't know her yet of course, but she certainly made an impression on him already.

" _AH!"_

 _He bumped into someone's shoulder and felt something cold on his arm._

" _Nee-chan, I'll have to call you back." He ended his call and looked at the person he bumped into._

" _Gomen, are you okay?"_

 _It was a girl, by the look of her height was probably 4 to 5 years younger than him, with a dark-green hair being tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a navy blue top along with a red jacket and a white short that fell slightly below mid-thigh. She looked quite beautiful, he might say._

" _Tsk, you made me dropped my ice cream."_

" _Gomenasai, but are you fine?" he asked while cleaning his full-of-ice cream arm with his handkerchief._

" _I'm fine, but I haven't eaten my ice cream yet."_

 _By this time, Fuji was a bit shocked. Usually, any girl who met Fuji would immediately be captivated with him and would, well, flirt with him. But this girl seemed to be more concerned with her fallen ice cream than talking to him._

" _Do you want me to buy you another ice cream?" he offered while pointing to a nearby ice cream stand, "It's the least I can do to compensate for it."_

" _Mada mada dane, that was a gelato that I bought from a café. Whatever, it's okay, I'm full anyway. Just watch out ahead when you're walking next time"_

 _Fuji was definitely surprised to see this girl not only rejected his offer but also left him standing there. His curiosity was definitely piqued._

' _Saa… Interesting… I hope we meet again."_

He remembered thinking the girl was out of the ordinary and hoped that he would meet her again. And met again, they did. He couldn't believe his eyes when Ryoma showed up in Seigaku's tennis courts and even got herself into the ranking matches. He had never seen a girl allowed to play in boys' tennis before. That and her great tennis skills certainly caught his attention. He definitely wanted to know her better that time.

He couldn't believe it had been quite some time since that happened. Now he just had to think of plans on how to –

' _Is that Ryoma? Oh my what a coincidence,'_ He thought upon seeing Ryoma walking on the street, _'Is she with Atobe again?'_ He could feel his blood boiling a bit upon seeing whom she was with. Didn't they already spend time yesterday?

Well he guessed his plans to make Ryoma-chan his could wait. Right now, he had a meeting (of course he wouldn't call this a date) to ruin.

All the evil ideas sprang up in his head like lightbulbs. And what was better was there were no other regulars around to spoil his plans.

 **. . .**

"Kei, let's go get that parfait."

"We'll go there after finding the gift, Ryoma."

"Can we just go to the café first? Pleaseeeee."

"Fine," Keigo sighed in agreement since he knew his cousin could be very whiny if she didn't get her sugar.

' _Lavender Café? Interesting…'_

So the both of them entered the café and found a table in the corner. 2 tables down there was a lady sitting there alone.

"Hello, welcome to the Lavender Café. Can I take your order?"

"Ore-sama wants nothing but the best for the both of us. What is your best seller here?"

"Why we have the Death by Chocolate Parfait or if you like something more fruity we have the Fruit Paradise Parfait with matcha ice cream on top. For the cakes, our best sellers are Tiramisu Layer Cake and Vanilla Soufflé."

"Can we just share one parfait, Kei? I wanna buy the cakes as well."

"Anything's fine for ore-sama."

"So, can we get one Death by Chocolate Parfait and one Tiramisu Layer Cake?"

"Okay. Please wait 15 minutes for your order to arrive."

 **. . .**

"Here are your orders. 2 Death by Chocolate Parfait and 2 Tiramisu Layer Cake."

"Huh? Ore-sama only ordered one of each, definitely not because ore-sama couldn't afford them."

"Yes, I'm pretty sure we only ordered one parfait and one cake, miss. There must be some mistakes." Ryoma got confused.

"Oh no, there's no mistake young miss," The waitress replied, "The other set is on the house. Well actually it was from the lady over there. Eh, where did she go? She was here just a moment ago. She must have headed out already. It was the lady two tables down from you."

"The lady must be awed by ore-sama's handsomeness."

"Kei, stop being so conceited. Anyway, thank you for the other set." Ryoma was more than glad to receive free dessert.

"There is no other reason for us to receive cakes from the lady if she wasn't amazed by ore-sama."

"Whatever, Kei. Let's just dig in."

The said 'lady' thought to 'herself', _'Well at least my Ryo-chan isn't sharing a parfait with Atobe. I certainly wouldn't want them to have an indirect kiss, fufufu.'_

 **. . .**

"Kei, I'm tired! Can we just sit there first? My legs are killing me." She whined while pointing to a chair under a tree in the park.

"C'mon Ryo-chan, we still haven't bought anything yet."

"But we've looked onto a thousand stores. All of them look nice!"

"Nothing but the best for an Atobe, Ryoma. You have to know that."

"But we've been visiting stores for the past 1 hour. I want to sit down!"

"Okay, fine." Keigo could never say no to his cousin after all.

"So, Ryoma, how's tennis in Seigaku?" He started to chat with her while sitting down to rest for a while.

"Well, it's great actually. But seriously the senpais could really tone down their nosiness. And you! You need to stop coming to my school. People are starting to think something else, well not that I care about it. But they are bothering me more often now."

"Oh c'mon Ryoma, that's because all of them are awed by my graciousness and handsomeness."

"What the hell, Kei?"

"You know I only come to check on you anyway. Besides, I haven't been going to Seigaku as often anymore you know. And you haven't been visiting Atobe's house as often. Ka-san and tou-san miss you so much you know."

"I know, I've been busy these days. I'll try to come visit ba-san and ji-san more often." She replied, but suddenly she felt something plopped onto her hair from above, "What was that? Something fell onto my hair, Kei."

"Let me see that," He said while leaning forward to Ryoma's head. "Oh, it's just a bug. Wait let me get it off from you."

"Hn"

"Stay still, don't move so much."

"I wasn't moving at all."

"There, it's all gone now. I'll check in case there's another one." Atobe threw away the bug from her hair and decided to check in case there was another one. He inched even closer to Ryoma, when suddenly,

"OW. Who dared to hit ore-sama!" Keigo felt a small pebble hit his head out of nowhere and he immediately stood up to look for the perpetrator.

"What are you saying, Kei?"

"Someone hit me with a stone, okay!"

"PFFTTT, you have a red mark on your forehead! HAHHAHAA"

"Stop laughing at me, Ryoma! It's not funny. Someone threw this stone to ore-sama!"

"There's no one around here, Kei. Maybe it dropped from a tree. HAHAHAHA" Ryoma couldn't stop laughing. Her cousin looked so funny with the red mark on his head.

'Saaa, _that's what you get for getting too near to my Ryo-chan…'_

 **. . .**

"HAHA I still can't believe you didn't let me take a picture of your forehead, Kei!"

"Stop it Ryoma! Let's just continue our search."

"What you mean you still want to look for ba-san's gift?"

"Yes, we need to. At least for your sake. You would probably leave it at the last minute."

"Fine"

Both cousins were now walking in the busy street of a shopping district. Keigo was thinking on what stores they should visit after this. They visited Tiffany and Co, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Hermes, and a lot more, but nothing had really caught his eyes yet. Maybe they needed to go search through this year's fashion trend and runway. And he was sure his cousin was probably sick of going to all the stores, and true to his guess,

"Are we done yet? Let's just go home already."

"We haven't found anything yet, Ryoma."

"C'mon Kei, I'm dying out of boredom."

"You can't die out of boredom Ryoma-chan. Besides, AH!"

A what looked like 6-7 years old boy tripped and spilled his glass of coke onto his shirt.

"No, you ruined ore-sama's precious clothes!"

The said boy had tears in his eyes and was going to cry any time soon. Ryoma guessed the boy's knees probably hurt when he fell earlier.

"Are you okay, little boy?"

"I'm hic okay hic. Sorry onii-chan hic hic"

"Look at what you've done, Kei. You're making this boy crying." She lightly scolded Keigo and said to the boy, "It's okay dear. This onii-chan will forgive you, right onii-chan? And he will treat you to ice-cream too." She turned to Kei with a too sweet of a smile, definitely threatening Kei not to say anything stupid.

"Err ya, yes! It's okay."

"Really?" The boy asked with eyes sparkling brightly.

Keigo could only sweatdrop at what Ryoma was asking him to do. This was probably payback for asking her to go shopping with him all day long. He sighed and said,

"C'mon kid, ore-sama will carry you. Hop on to ore-sama's back. Be awed by ore-sama's kindness."

"Thank you onii-chan."

So the three of them set off to go to an ice-cream stand nearby and as expected, Keigo was the one who had to pay for all the ice-cream. After eating, the boy was visibly better and he stopped crying already.

"Thank you onee-chan, onii-chan!"

"You're welcome, dear. Now, are you with your mummy?"

"Nope. I'm meeting my friends after this. I need to go now. See you nee-chan, nii-chan." The boy suddenly stood up and went off his way while waving to the both of them.

"Eh, does he even know where he's going, Kei?"

"Probably. I mean he's at least 7 years old you know."

"So, what are we going to do with that coke stain on your shirt?"

"I need to send it to the dry-cleaning or it will stain forever. C'mon let's just go home for now. We can always look for mum's gift through this year runway and catalogues."

"Why didn't you do this earlier, Kei! You could have saved me from a thousand trips to the stores."

"But that's exactly why we're going. Where's the fun in picking from catalogues and not seeing you suffer, Ryoma-chan?"

"You are so dead, Kei!" Ryoma chased her cousin around, trying to get her payback. She was secretly relieved that the boy bumped into Kei and cut this trip short. Finally, she could just enjoy her day peacefully.

 **. . .**

Not far away from those two cousins, the said boy was talking a honey brown haired guy.

"Thank you for the help today, Aki-chan. I'll definitely treat you that chocolate bars that you love every day for the whole week."

"Yeay, thank you Syuu-nii. You're the best!"

' _Fufufu, my plans worked so well today. Atobe doesn't think he could hog my Ryo-chan for the whole entire day and stay close near her, right? At least they ended early now,'_ Fuji chuckled evilly.

"Are you okay, Syuu-nii?" Akira asked his neighbor, scared that Syuu-nii just laughed with a very diabolical tone.

"Everything is just perfect, Aki-chan. C'mon let's go get your chocolate now."

* * *

Notice how if Fuji was the one planning this, he didn't get found out. Why? Because he's a genius!

 **Please, please write reviews for me.**

x,

vi


	21. 19: Surprise Party Part 1

Chapter 19: Surprise Party Part 1

Thank you for all the kind reviewers and readers out there for staying loyal with the story. I hope you guys are not bored with my story just yet. Sorry the updates are so slow, since I'm quite busy now.

Disclaimer: POT doesnt belong to me

* * *

Saturday had finally come around the corner, which meant it was the day of the 'surprise party' that she and her cousin, Keigo, had been planning for so long. Ryoma knew that Aunt Ryoko wouldn't be surprised with the 'surprise party' anymore. They did this every year and after a while, it simply became a tradition to hold this. But just because it wasn't a surprise anymore, didn't mean they could slack off in the preparation. After all, this is a party of Atobe, and Atobes threw the finest parties. Only the best things were used for the preparation and only the upper crust of the society were invited – mostly because they were business partners with the Atobe. No budget was given in planning this party. And both of them wanted to make sure this year's party would be the best one yet.

The theme of the party was garden party under the star. It was an outdoor party and would be held in one of Atobe's garden. They had put up few large tents, one large one surrounded by smaller ones. The tents had plastic outer so rain wouldn't get inside, while the inside, the softest and finest midnight blue silk was draped, so as not to contrast too much with the sky. The soil was covered tiles before putting on silk carpets with the same color as the walls. Together they made it looked like a midnight starry sky. Lanterns and small lamps (surrounded by diamonds to make them looked brighter) were hung in all kind of sizes and soft colors in between the tents as well as the ceiling to make it resemble a starry night sky. The trees around were wrapped with special Swarovski crystals that reflected all the lights. The soft glowing trees and the bright lanterns would complement each other to give the perfect sky atmosphere. Guests would be welcomed with a red carpet leading to the outdoor party place, with star shaped lamps on both sides of the carpet to give it a enchanting look. It was truly a magical sight to behold and it was all thanks to Ryoma and Keigo.

The finest food would be served, all ingredients imported from the origin countries and the best 5 stars chef were hired. The birthday cake would be baked specially by the famous baker from New York. She was specially hired to make Aunt Ryoko the best cake money could buy.

All the preparations needed for the party were complete and Keigo and Ryoma had already made sure that the staffs were ready for the party. All Keigo and Ryoma had to do now was to get ready. But alas,

"NO WHY WOULD I WEAR THAT! GET THAT HIDEOUS THING AWAY FROM ME KEI!" Ryoma's shout could be heard throughout the mansion.

"Ryoma-chan, it is a classy and beautiful dress and certainly it is not hideous."

"But it's a dress. Can't I just wear some pants?!"

"Now, after this you would argue certain things and then I would trash your arguments completely. And we both know that it's not possible for you to win this time. So let's not waste anymore time and get into the dress, Ryoma. We still need to do your hair and make up. Besides, Aunt Rinko had already agreed on this dress."

"You mean mum agreed with you!"

"Oh yes, and so have Uncle Nanjiroh and Ryoga, as well as Nanako-nee."

"I can't believe my family would put me through the suffering. How do you call yourselves my family?" Ryoma voiced out incredulously.

"Now, now, we only have your interest at heart. So stop complaining and hurry up. We have to greet the guests when they come. And we certainly don't want your mum to come before you're ready."

Ryoma shuddered at the thought of her mum coming to the party and seeing her daughter not ready yet and still arguing with the dress. She could already imagine what her mum would put her through and would probably come up with even crazier dress.

She knew the upper class parties would require her to wear a dress. This was why she hated and tried to avoid as many parties as she could. But there was no harm in trying to persuade Keigo to let her not wear a dress this time, and it wasn't working. She sighed, picked the dress up and went to the changing room. ' _If I had survived other dresses before, this surely wouldn't kill me.'_

It wasn't like she hated the dress Keigo was giving her. It was a velvety dark green dress that would reflect a softer intensity under different light, something about the material color of the dress. The color complemented her hair perfectly and brought her golden eyes out more. The design was simple enough with it being strapless, princess line on the top, with an A-line flow-y bottom. It accentuated her curves and made her look taller and more mature. Ryoma knew an expensive thing when she saw one, especially since she had been growing up with Keigo.

"Good you've changed. I know that dress would look good on you. Now, off you go to hair and make up then!"

"Please no heavy make up or crazy hairstyles." She told the stylist and the make up artist. She would kill herself if she looked like those deluded women who literally stuffed their faces with make up.

"Don't worry Ryoma-hime, we already knew what your taste like." The stylist tried to soothe Ryoma. And how on earth the stylist knew her taste was something she wouldn't like to know.

After more than an hour of torture (it wasn't enough that the day before Keigo had forced her to spend half her day in the salon getting her nails done, masks for her face and whatever she needed, according to Kei), she dared herself to open her eyes when the stylist and make up artist told her she was done.

Well, she didn't look too bad. Her makeup was light and natural. The blush-on made her cheeks soft pink, while the lipgloss made her lips fuller. Her golden and green eyeshadow made her eyes looked bigger, and it matched her dress. Her hair was in an elegant but simple updo with braids around it. Overall, she was okay with her look. At least she didn't look too crazy.

"Ryoma, you look beautiful."

"Thanks, Kei. You look not too bad as well." She returned the somewhat compliment, seeing Kei in his triple layer tuxedo in the shades of purple. She swore, only her cousin could work the color purple in a tuxedo and made it looked like it was made for him. He looked even more regal than before.

"Put on this shoes and let's head downstairs to greet the guests."

"Are you crazy! I've never worn heels that high. What is this? 10cm! You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

"Ryoma, please, this is only 5cm and you wouldn't die wearing it. Now hurry up. We don't have much time left."

Knowing she didn't have the time to argue with her cousin and seeing there was no other pair of shoes prepared for her, she slipped on the heels and followed her cousin downstairs to meet the first guests.

"Ore-sama welcome you to our humble abode, Uncle and Auntie, as well as Ryoga and Nanako-nee."

"Hi mum, Nanako-nee, oyaji, aniki." She nodded at her family.

"Looking good, chibisuke! Make sure no man hit on you tonight okay. I will kill any man going 5 metres near you."

"You're so beautiful today Ryoma-chan!" Her mum exclaimed with such excitement. Come, let's take a picture of this."

"Stop it mum!"

"It's wonderful on what you've done to the place, Ryo-chan, Kei." Nanako complimented them. "You both look really pretty and handsome as well."

"Why of course. Nothing but the best for the Atobe party."

"Okay, you two enjoy yourself greeting the guests. We're going to greet Ryoko and Keisuke." Rinko announced and all of them headed off to the main tent.

Keigo and Ryoma were standing near the entrance door and were greeting the endless stream of guests that came to the party. Ryoma was feeling a bit grouchy since she had to stand in that crazy heels Keigo gave her and kept her 'smile' at all times. Yes she could smile the upper society smile, she had been trained from young after all. But she could definitely feel her muscles cramping soon.

"WOAH THIS IS ATOBE'S HOUSE?!"

"YUP THIS IS BUCHOU'S, WE'VE BEEN HERE SO MANY TIMES."

"THIS IS CRAZY!"

"TARUNDORU"

Noises, loud noises, could be heard a few miles away. And judging by the sound of it, she was sure it was the Rikkai and Hyotei team coming together. How they met each other she had no idea, but it was a bad idea to let the two teams came in together. They were so noisy that the other guests were looking at the direction of the voices even if the sources couldn't be seen yet.

A few minutes later, lo and behold, the Hyotei and Rikkai team were walking together looking great, well most of them. All of them were in tuxedos with different styles. Some were really well groomed, like Sanada, Renji, Yagyuu and Yushi, with their tuxedos buttoned up and the ties neat and straight. Some were a little more casual, like Bunta, Kirihara, and Niou with their tuxes loosed and no tie. But all of them were neat enough for the occasion, Ryoma decided.

"Ah, Ore-sama welcomes you guys to ore-sama's mansion. Be awed by ore-sama's graciousness to invite you. Ore-sama is sure that you will enjoy your time here and have the best party you will ever have."

"What he said." Ryoma felt her cousin's introduction was more than enough anyway.

"Thank you for the invitation, Atobe. We appreciate it." Seiichi politely thanked him. "And Ri-chan, you look gorgeous today." And Seiichi gave her a quick hug.

Niou whistled in appreciation, "You clean up good Echizen."

"I agree, you look impeccably lovely today, Echizen-san." Yagyuu the ever gentleman complimented her.

But alas not all of Rikkai and Hyotei team members could be as polite as them.

"IS THAT YOU RYOMA-CHAN?!"

"ECHIZEN IN A DRESS? YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME?!"

"AM I SEEING THINGS NOW!"

Both the team troublemakers and loudmouths (namely Marui, Kirihara, Jirou and Gakuto) were shouting in disbelief, rubbing their eyes to make sure they were seeing the right thing. Ryoma was more than embarrassed and upset by their reaction.

"Kei, do something to your team. You too, Sei. You guys are disturbing the guests!"

"Now, now people, we shall behave tonight, or else…" Sei gave them the threatening creepy smile and left the sentence hanging for the rest of the 2 teams to imagine themselves what he would do if they didn't behave.

It worked like magic and the rest of them went quiet as a mouse.

"Ore-sama expects all of you to conduct yourselves in the best manner seeing ore-sama has a lot of other important guests attending this party. Is ore-sama clear?"

"Yes, buchou…" Only the Hyotei members replied.

"Why did you guys come together anyway?" Ryoma asked Seiichi.

"Well, we met them in the gate coincidentally. So we came in together."

"Anyway, Ryoma-chan, did you and buchou plan this party by yourselves?" Jirou asked Ryoma excitedly. He seemed really impressed by the party decorations and theme.

"We did."

"That's so romantic! So, buchou, did you manage to win her affection yet?" He continued.

"Wait! What do you mean romantic and win her affection?! Echizen is buchou's girlfriend, for your information!" Kirihara disrupted the conversation and defended his captain.

"Yea yea!" Marui agreed.

"No! Ryoma is our buchou's girlfriend!" Gakuto started to get into arguments with the Rikkai members.

"Guys, remember where we are. Let's not fight here." Jackal tried to separate them and ended the argument. Alas, having only 1 Jackal didn't prove to be effective against 4 energetic boys.

"Ryoma came to visit buchou in the hospital!"

"Well, Atobe came to Seigaku so often, he even missed trainings to check on her!"

"Yukimura-buchou hugged Ryoma!"

"Atobe did the same too!"

Seeing their team members like this, Sanada was having the migraine of his life, Yagyuu and Yuushi watched with amusement, while Niou was smirking at their behavior.

On the other hand, Ryoma could only stare in disbelief at what these people were saying. Keigo and Seiichi chuckled upon hearing their conclusion.

"Kei, Sei, do something…" Ryoma glared threateningly. Really, what the hell went into these people's heads! If this was what happened with only two teams, she did not want to imagine what would happen when Seigaku arrived. Speaking of Seigaku, where the hell were they?

Ryoma sent a quick text to Fuji-senpai,

'Fuji-senpai, where are you right now?'

And she got an instant reply in less than 1 minute.

'Miss me already, Ryo-chan?'

'I want to know where's the team…'

'Fine fine, we're running late because Momoshiro overslept. We're reaching in 10. Save me a dance, okay ;)'

Ryoma simply sweatdropped at the reason. How did someone oversleep when the party was at night? And she somehow dreaded the next 10 minutes when Seigaku would be arriving. And why would Fuji-senpai asked her to save him a dance...

* * *

Okay, the next chapter would still be at the party scene. There would be appearance of Fuji Ryoma there.

I don't know whether I should reveal everything in the next chapter or not. What do you think guys?

Do leave a review!

xoxo,

violet


	22. 20: Party Part 2

Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Pot is not mine

* * *

"What do you mean we have to go shopping again, Kei?" Ryoma adamantly refused to entertain her cousin's crazy suggestion and protested vehemently, "I am not going anywhere near that shopping district for the next 2 years anymore. Do you know how much suffering I had when – "

"Stop being such a drama queen Ryoma-chan. You weren't even suffering that much, okay," Keigo cut off her speech. He swore Ryoma could be very talkative when she wanted to be or when she was comfortable with a person already. Well at least, talkative to her standard, which was anything consisted more than 2 sentences. He continued his explanation, "We are going to go shopping for mum's gift for her birthday party next week. I haven't bought anything yet, and I guarantee it probably won't even cross your mind until the day before."

"Oh. You should have said that earlier." Ryoma pulled her cap down to hide her embarrassment.

"That's why you shouldn't cut a person's speech before he finishes."

"Hn."

"So, what are you still sitting on the bed for? C'mon get up and change."

"Can't I just wear this, Kei? I mean I'm in shorts and tshirt already!"

"Ryo-chan, remember what Rinko-ba-san said last time? Do you want me to call her?"

"I swear I don't even know why you're my cousin, Kei. I hate you." Ryoma grumbly stood up and went to her closet in Kei's room. (Yes she had a closet full of her belonging in Kei's room).

"C'mon don't be in such a bad mood, Ryo-chan. I'll treat you that chocolate parfait you have been dying to try from Lavender Café."

"You win this time, Kei." Ryoma's mood instantly brightened up upon hearing the words 'treat' and 'Lavender Café'.

 **. . .**

Fuji was enjoying his revelation right now. He actually enjoyed the new emotions he was having. It was new, but it certainly wasn't unpleasant. Since he had realised it, he felt freer and everything seemed to make more sense. And now he definitely needed to come up with a plan on how to make Ryoma-chan his and no one else's.

' _Saaa… I guess spending some time in the park would help me come up with new ideas. Being all cooped up at home certainly wouldn't help.'_

Fuji went out of his house to have a little stroll in the park, not forgetting to bring his camera along. He would certainly be able to find interesting things to photograph at. He needed some new pictures to add onto his collections anyway.

So there he was right now, in a busy street of Tokyo going to a park. He noticed the stares girls (and guys, if they thought he was a girl) gave him whenever they saw him. Some daring girls even tried to flirt with him, like winking at him or giving him _that_ look. He ignored all of them of course.

But this made him remembered his first meeting with Ryoma. He didn't know her yet of course, but she certainly made an impression on him already.

" _AH!"_

 _He bumped into someone's shoulder and felt something cold on his arm._

" _Nee-chan, I'll have to call you back." He ended his call and looked at the person he bumped into._

" _Gomen, are you okay?"_

 _It was a girl, by the look of her height was probably 4 to 5 years younger than him, with a dark-green hair being tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a navy blue top along with a red jacket and a white short that fell slightly below mid-thigh. She looked quite beautiful, he might say._

" _Tsk, you made me dropped my ice cream."_

" _Gomenasai, but are you fine?" he asked while cleaning his full-of-ice cream arm with his handkerchief._

" _I'm fine, but I haven't eaten my ice cream yet."_

 _By this time, Fuji was a bit shocked. Usually, any girl who met Fuji would immediately be captivated with him and would, well, flirt with him. But this girl seemed to be more concerned with her fallen ice cream than talking to him._

" _Do you want me to buy you another ice cream?" he offered while pointing to a nearby ice cream stand, "It's the least I can do to compensate for it."_

" _Mada mada dane, that was a gelato that I bought from a café. Whatever, it's okay, I'm full anyway. Just watch out ahead when you're walking next time"_

 _Fuji was definitely surprised to see this girl not only rejected his offer but also left him standing there. His curiosity was definitely piqued._

' _Saa… Interesting… I hope we meet again."_

He remembered thinking the girl was out of the ordinary and hoped that he would meet her again. And met again, they did. He couldn't believe his eyes when Ryoma showed up in Seigaku's tennis courts and even got herself into the ranking matches. He had never seen a girl allowed to play in boys' tennis before. That and her great tennis skills certainly caught his attention. He definitely wanted to know her better that time.

He couldn't believe it had been quite some time since that happened. Now he just had to think of plans on how to –

' _Is that Ryoma? Oh my what a coincidence,'_ He thought upon seeing Ryoma walking on the street, _'Is she with Atobe again?'_ He could feel his blood boiling a bit upon seeing whom she was with. Didn't they already spend time yesterday?

Well he guessed his plans to make Ryoma-chan his could wait. Right now, he had a meeting (of course he wouldn't call this a date) to ruin.

All the evil ideas sprang up in his head like lightbulbs. And what was better was there were no other regulars around to spoil his plans.

 **. . .**

"Kei, let's go get that parfait."

"We'll go there after finding the gift, Ryoma."

"Can we just go to the café first? Pleaseeeee."

"Fine," Keigo sighed in agreement since he knew his cousin could be very whiny if she didn't get her sugar.

' _Lavender Café? Interesting…'_

So the both of them entered the café and found a table in the corner. 2 tables down there was a lady sitting there alone.

"Hello, welcome to the Lavender Café. Can I take your order?"

"Ore-sama wants nothing but the best for the both of us. What is your best seller here?"

"Why we have the Death by Chocolate Parfait or if you like something more fruity we have the Fruit Paradise Parfait with matcha ice cream on top. For the cakes, our best sellers are Tiramisu Layer Cake and Vanilla Soufflé."

"Can we just share one parfait, Kei? I wanna buy the cakes as well."

"Anything's fine for ore-sama."

"So, can we get one Death by Chocolate Parfait and one Tiramisu Layer Cake?"

"Okay. Please wait 15 minutes for your order to arrive."

 **. . .**

"Here are your orders. 2 Death by Chocolate Parfait and 2 Tiramisu Layer Cake."

"Huh? Ore-sama only ordered one of each, definitely not because ore-sama couldn't afford them."

"Yes, I'm pretty sure we only ordered one parfait and one cake, miss. There must be some mistakes." Ryoma got confused.

"Oh no, there's no mistake young miss," The waitress replied, "The other set is on the house. Well actually it was from the lady over there. Eh, where did she go? She was here just a moment ago. She must have headed out already. It was the lady two tables down from you."

"The lady must be awed by ore-sama's handsomeness."

"Kei, stop being so conceited. Anyway, thank you for the other set." Ryoma was more than glad to receive free dessert.

"There is no other reason for us to receive cakes from the lady if she wasn't amazed by ore-sama."

"Whatever, Kei. Let's just dig in."

The said 'lady' thought to 'herself', _'Well at least my Ryo-chan isn't sharing a parfait with Atobe. I certainly wouldn't want them to have an indirect kiss, fufufu.'_

 **. . .**

"Kei, I'm tired! Can we just sit there first? My legs are killing me." She whined while pointing to a chair under a tree in the park.

"C'mon Ryo-chan, we still haven't bought anything yet."

"But we've looked onto a thousand stores. All of them look nice!"

"Nothing but the best for an Atobe, Ryoma. You have to know that."

"But we've been visiting stores for the past 1 hour. I want to sit down!"

"Okay, fine." Keigo could never say no to his cousin after all.

"So, Ryoma, how's tennis in Seigaku?" He started to chat with her while sitting down to rest for a while.

"Well, it's great actually. But seriously the senpais could really tone down their nosiness. And you! You need to stop coming to my school. People are starting to think something else, well not that I care about it. But they are bothering me more often now."

"Oh c'mon Ryoma, that's because all of them are awed by my graciousness and handsomeness."

"What the hell, Kei?"

"You know I only come to check on you anyway. Besides, I haven't been going to Seigaku as often anymore you know. And you haven't been visiting Atobe's house as often. Ka-san and tou-san miss you so much you know."

"I know, I've been busy these days. I'll try to come visit ba-san and ji-san more often." She replied, but suddenly she felt something plopped onto her hair from above, "What was that? Something fell onto my hair, Kei."

"Let me see that," He said while leaning forward to Ryoma's head. "Oh, it's just a bug. Wait let me get it off from you."

"Hn"

"Stay still, don't move so much."

"I wasn't moving at all."

"There, it's all gone now. I'll check in case there's another one." Atobe threw away the bug from her hair and decided to check in case there was another one. He inched even closer to Ryoma, when suddenly,

"OW. Who dared to hit ore-sama!" Keigo felt a small pebble hit his head out of nowhere and he immediately stood up to look for the perpetrator.

"What are you saying, Kei?"

"Someone hit me with a stone, okay!"

"PFFTTT, you have a red mark on your forehead! HAHHAHAA"

"Stop laughing at me, Ryoma! It's not funny. Someone threw this stone to ore-sama!"

"There's no one around here, Kei. Maybe it dropped from a tree. HAHAHAHA" Ryoma couldn't stop laughing. Her cousin looked so funny with the red mark on his head.

'Saaa, _that's what you get for getting too near to my Ryo-chan…'_

 **. . .**

"HAHA I still can't believe you didn't let me take a picture of your forehead, Kei!"

"Stop it Ryoma! Let's just continue our search."

"What you mean you still want to look for ba-san's gift?"

"Yes, we need to. At least for your sake. You would probably leave it at the last minute."

"Fine"

Both cousins were now walking in the busy street of a shopping district. Keigo was thinking on what stores they should visit after this. They visited Tiffany and Co, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Hermes, and a lot more, but nothing had really caught his eyes yet. Maybe they needed to go search through this year's fashion trend and runway. And he was sure his cousin was probably sick of going to all the stores, and true to his guess,

"Are we done yet? Let's just go home already."

"We haven't found anything yet, Ryoma."

"C'mon Kei, I'm dying out of boredom."

"You can't die out of boredom Ryoma-chan. Besides, AH!"

A what looked like 6-7 years old boy tripped and spilled his glass of coke onto his shirt.

"No, you ruined ore-sama's precious clothes!"

The said boy had tears in his eyes and was going to cry any time soon. Ryoma guessed the boy's knees probably hurt when he fell earlier.

"Are you okay, little boy?"

"I'm hic okay hic. Sorry onii-chan hic hic"

"Look at what you've done, Kei. You're making this boy crying." She lightly scolded Keigo and said to the boy, "It's okay dear. This onii-chan will forgive you, right onii-chan? And he will treat you to ice-cream too." She turned to Kei with a too sweet of a smile, definitely threatening Kei not to say anything stupid.

"Err ya, yes! It's okay."

"Really?" The boy asked with eyes sparkling brightly.

Keigo could only sweatdrop at what Ryoma was asking him to do. This was probably payback for asking her to go shopping with him all day long. He sighed and said,

"C'mon kid, ore-sama will carry you. Hop on to ore-sama's back. Be awed by ore-sama's kindness."

"Thank you onii-chan."

So the three of them set off to go to an ice-cream stand nearby and as expected, Keigo was the one who had to pay for all the ice-cream. After eating, the boy was visibly better and he stopped crying already.

"Thank you onee-chan, onii-chan!"

"You're welcome, dear. Now, are you with your mummy?"

"Nope. I'm meeting my friends after this. I need to go now. See you nee-chan, nii-chan." The boy suddenly stood up and went off his way while waving to the both of them.

"Eh, does he even know where he's going, Kei?"

"Probably. I mean he's at least 7 years old you know."

"So, what are we going to do with that coke stain on your shirt?"

"I need to send it to the dry-cleaning or it will stain forever. C'mon let's just go home for now. We can always look for mum's gift through this year runway and catalogues."

"Why didn't you do this earlier, Kei! You could have saved me from a thousand trips to the stores."

"But that's exactly why we're going. Where's the fun in picking from catalogues and not seeing you suffer, Ryoma-chan?"

"You are so dead, Kei!" Ryoma chased her cousin around, trying to get her payback. She was secretly relieved that the boy bumped into Kei and cut this trip short. Finally, she could just enjoy her day peacefully.

 **. . .**

Not far away from those two cousins, the said boy was talking a honey brown haired guy.

"Thank you for the help today, Aki-chan. I'll definitely treat you that chocolate bars that you love every day for the whole week."

"Yeay, thank you Syuu-nii. You're the best!"

' _Fufufu, my plans worked so well today. Atobe doesn't think he could hog my Ryo-chan for the whole entire day and stay close near her, right? At least they ended early now,'_ Fuji chuckled evilly.

"Are you okay, Syuu-nii?" Akira asked his neighbor, scared that Syuu-nii just laughed with a very diabolical tone.

"Everything is just perfect, Aki-chan. C'mon let's go get your chocolate now."

* * *

Notice how if Fuji was the one planning this, he didn't get found out. Why? Because he's a genius!

x,

violet


	23. 21: The Big Revelation

Chapter 21: The big revelation

So as you guess from the title, this is the chapter it is all revealed. Anyway, i would like to thank for all the support and reviews guys! enjoy this chapter and pray that I get my inspiration to write this story again. Do leave a review for me!

Disclaimer: pot is not mine

* * *

Fuji couldn't look away from one person in the party even if he wanted to. He couldn't tear his gaze from the beautiful Echizen Ryoma. She looked absolutely ethereal and she was like a fallen angel. He just wanted to touch and hug her right then, but of course she would probably be shocked and stay away from him. He definitely did not want that. He could guess that Ryoma had no idea of his feeling and he had no desire to tell her soon.

Fuji was a bit jealous seeing all the tugging earlier especially with all the arguments whom Ryoma belonged to. He wanted Ryoma for himself and he had to come up with something to make that happen. He had no qualm that Ryoma had some chemistry with Atobe and Yukimura. Atobe was all touchy with her and Ryoma didn't seem to mind. Yukimura was too friendly with Ryoma and he did not like that. Not one bit. He was jealous that all these people were fighting for her (to be with their buchous).

 **. . .**

Of course, none of this escaped the sharp eyes Yukimura. He had been observing his good friend, Fuji, for the night and he had found that no matter what, Fuji's eyes always end up at one person. He had suspected this of course, with Fuji always giving him a 'threatening' smile every time to him and Atobe, especially after the fight from the two teams. He could see why people could easily misunderstand why Ryoma was smitten with either him or Atobe. He chuckled at the thought people thinking Atobe was with Ryoma. Because he grew up with the both of them, he knew they were cousin and to him Ryoma was nothing more than a great childhood friend. He wasn't the least bit interested in her in a romantic way, not because she lacked of beauty, but simply because he was swinging for the other team. Now he just had to add some oil to the fire and walked up to his cousin, fully knowing Fuji was going to see this.

"There you are, Ri-chan." He said hugging her and placing his hand on top of her shoulder, "How are you holding up?"

"You know I hate all of this, Sei. I just want to get this done and over with."

"Don't worry, Ri-chan. All will be fine."

"I know, its just that I want this to be over soon." She saw the head waiter calling for her, " Okay, I need to go to make sure the cake for later."

Of course Fuji glaring daggers to him even after Ryoma left didn't escape his notice. He made his way to Fuji,

"Saa… Fuji you have been awfully quiet and hostile."

"Whatever do you mean, Yukimura?" Fuji replied, still with a fake smile plastered to his face.

"Are you perhaps jealous of me and Ri-chan?" He teased.

"What if I am?"

"Oh," Yukimura was surprised with Fuji's bold confession and chuckled, "Fufufu, interesting. I guess its your lucky day today. If I were you, I would listen to the birthday woman's toast intently." And left to chat with other people in the party.

Fuji was left confused with whatever Yukimura was trying to say and it wasn't an easy feat to make him confused. He guessed he just had to wait to figure out the meaning.

 **. . .**

Ryoma was having the biggest headache of her life. She swore she would chop her cousin's head off for inviting the three teams without telling her first. Imagine her surprise/anger when her cousin decided to tell her 2 days before the party that he had invited Hyotei, Rikkai and Seigaku. She was supposed to be the one in charge of the final guest list, but noooo, Kei just had to meddle and take things into his own hands. He had justified his action by saying that of course he had to invite his own team, he had been doing that for the past hundred parties or so. Fine, she understood Hyotei, but why the hell did Rikkai and Seigaku need to come? After an hour of debating and illogical reasonings from Kei, she had finally agreed to it. It wasn't as if she could retract the damn invitations back from her seniors.

Agreeing to Kei's idea was the worst decision she had made for this party.

They were like monkeys on the loose, jumping up and down, getting excited everywhere. Well, most of them were polite and gentleman enough to act decently, it was just some of the boys such as Kirihara, Marui, Jiroh, Gakuto and Kikumaru that were beyond hope.

And to add to her misery, she had to stay in this party until the end because she was the host as well. Damn her cousin for roping her into planning this party with him. She hated parties generally, but she loathed upper class parties. They were full of fake smiles and shallow questions. She just wanted to get all of this over with and back to her room and watched some movies or something.

At least, the main event for the party, which was the surprise cake for her aunt, was coming soon. The sooner it started, the sooner the party would end.

She was leaning against one of the pillar after having to talk with the owner of some company that Ryoma never bothered to remember. It was an exhausting talk, with her giving all of her might not to be rude to the man and told him to shut up.

"Emm, Ryoma-san," Choutarou walked up to her, blushing a little bit, and muttered something she couldn't hear because of the low volume he spoke in.

"What did you say, Choutarou-kun?"

"I said, would you like to dance with me?" Choutarou spoke a little louder than he intended to. He just wanted to make his voice louder a little bit since she couldn't hear the first time he asked. But since he was nervous, he couldn't control his volume.

"AH NYA! CHOUTAROU IS STEALING OCHIBI'S FIRST DANCE!" Kikumaru yelled from his place and quickly made his way to them. "Ochibiiii, come have your first dance with me!" Kikumaru started glomping onto her.

"No way, she's supposed to dance with Yukimura-buchou!" Kirihara tugged her other arm into his direction.

"She's with Atobe! Besides its his party, so he has the right to dance with her." Gakuto and Jiroh started pulling her along with Kikumaru.

Ryoma was beyond ticked off right now. Veins were popping out of her head. She was not some doll to be fought over. But she couldn't shout in a party since she was supposed to be all prim and proper, lest her mother would kill her if she saw her daughter behaving like an uneducated man.

"Senpai, let me go…" She growled in irritation but alas those people didn't even hear her voice. "Sei, do something about your team." She mouthed to Seiichi who just chuckled at her disposition.

"She's Yukimura-buchou's girlfriend!"

"Well, Atobe-buchou likes her as well!"

"Senpai, .go…" She tried again with a more threatening voice.

"SHE BELONGS TO YUKIMURA-BUCHOU AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"NO SHE IS WITH ATOBE!"

"Kei…" She sent pleas of help to her cousin, whom got the message.

"Now, now, ore-sama realised that all of you are crazy about Ryoma-chan here, but its time to let her go. She needs to do something with ore-sama now." And he pulled her with his hand on her shoulder.

 **. . .**

Exactly at 9pm, all of the light in the party went off making the place entirely dark. Some shouts and gasps of surprise were heard. The guests panicked a bit since they couldn't see anything.

That was until they heard soft voices singing,

"Happy birthday, Ryoko-ba-san, happy birthday Ryoko-ba-san..."

A magnificent cake was making its way through the back of the tent along with soft glow from the candles. Kei was pushing the cart with cake on top, while Ryoma was holding a bouquet of purple orchids. As they passed, little star-shaped lamps from crystal chandeliers slowly radiated and gave an ethereal ambience to the whole place.

"Purple orchids are for refined beauty which you always are. Have a happy birthday, ba-san."

"Have a happy birthday, ka-san, I love you. Please blow the candle now." Kei said while pushing the cake to her front.

Ryoko was touched by the effort of her son and niece in making the party memorable. Even if she had the party every year, this year was really the best one yet. She was so moved, she had tears in her eyes.

She proceeded into making a wish and blowing the candles. When the candles were blown, all the other lamps in the room started turning on again to give the night sky ambience once again.

The other guests were pleasingly astounded by the beauty of the event and clapped for Ryoko's birthday.

"Now, it's time to hear the speech from the birthday woman." Keisuke-ji-san took a mike and announced to the general crowd.

"Testing…" Ryoko started and the room went silence, "I just want to give my gratitude for all you honored guest for making time to come to my birthday this year. It means a lot to celebrate with people you cherish for your birthday. But I would like to give the biggest thank you and love to the two people who I know have painstakingly planned this most wonderful party I've had so far. Here's to my lovely son, Keigo and my beautiful niece, Ryoma. Thank you so much." She finished off and went to hug them both.

1… 2… 3…

"WHAT!"

"HER NIECE!"

"THAT MEANS BUCHOU AND RYOMA ARE COUSIN!"

"HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE NYAAAA"

And suddenly all the silence in the room was broken by the surprised shouts by the tennis members.

* * *

Done, okay its a bit of cliffhanger, but Im stuck and quite not motivated to continue.

x,

riwinkle


	24. 22: The Aftermath

Chapter 22: The Aftermath

Hi guys, I'm back. Big thanks, as always, to loyal readers, reviewers. And welcome to the new followers and favourites! Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Anyway wrong title in the previous chapter. I wrote it as chapter 23, when its actually 21. Sorry for any confusion.

Disclaimer: Pot is not mine

Warning: Contain swear words and a lot of shoutings ;) You've been warned

* * *

"WHAT THE ACTUAL?"

"ITS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"NO WAY!"

"THEY CAN'T BE COUSIN!"

"DATA ERROR…"

The once calm party was filled with shouts of surprise from all the three teams (or at least from the noisy people in the teams). They were fighting among themselves and discussing the impossibility (by Inui) of this to happen. Out of all the possible scenarios, Ryoma and Atobe being cousin was definitely not one of them.

Ryoma felt a trickle of satisfaction and smug having been able to make her seniors reacted that way. The expression on their faces was priceless. It was their own fault to assume all those things after all. She had never denied or confirmed anything; well it wasn't worth her time to confirm their stupid suspicions. But she did feel a bit ticked off since their loud reactions would probably disturb the guests.

The said guests were NOT disturbed. In fact, they were pretty much amused. It was good and free entertainment. Who would have thought that there were still people who thought Ryoma and Atobe were dating? Since all the guests were business partners or close friends with either the Atobe or the Echizen, most of them knew that these two families were very closely related. It was more than comical to see the young people's reactions. Soon enough, the whole place was filled with soft to loud laughter. It would be one of the most unforgettable parties from the Atobe.

So back to the tennis teams.

All of them were still trying to reel in the fact that Atobe and Ryoma were cousin in their head. It seemed that their little head were internally exploding due to overwhelming information. So now, Atobe had several additional statues as decoration for the party.

"Care to explain all of this, Ryoma-chan?" Fuji asked with his eyes open as he was the first one to snap out of his shock. This new piece of information certainly shocked him and got him a little upset. How the hell could Ryoma and Atobe be cousin, and why Ryoma didn't bother to tell them about this little fact before. Although, he was actually feeling relieved to know that, one less competition for him after all. But didn't mean he didn't want to know. He realised that this was probably why Yukimura was chuckling earlier and told him to pay specific attention to the speech. Yukimura probably knew about this all along seeing that he was their childhood friend. Damn, he certainly could tell Fuji about this and spared him all the jealousy he felt for the night.

"Emm no?" She squeaked back some answer after seeing the threat/smile from her senior.

"Would you like to revise your answer, Ryoma-chan?"

"I don't think so," Ryoma answered more bravely.

"WHAT THE HELL RYOMA!"

"ECHIZEN, EXPLAIN RIGHT NOW!"

And alas, their conversation was cut short when the rest of Atobe's new 'statues' came back to life and were making quite the ruckus.

"Ore-sama does not appreciate you people making ore-sama's guests disturbed. C'mon all of you follow ore-sama to another room." Atobe ordered as he definitely did not want to disturb the party guests. He turned to the rest of the people in the room, "Excuse Ryoma and ore-sama from this party. We all have some things to discuss with our teams here, but ore-sama wishes you all a pleasant evening for the rest of the night. Please enjoy the party."

And he walked away, followed by all the tennis members, to an indoor room of what seemed to be the entertainment room, with all the latest tech of TV, stereo, home theater and many more.

"So now, Ryoma-chan and Atobe, care to enlighten us?" Fuji asked again.

"My, my Fuji, aren't you being forceful today?" Yukimura chuckled at his behavior.

"Saaa… I think I speak for all of us when I ask that question," Fuji defended himself, "So Ryoma-chan?"

"I have nothing to say. It's none of your business anyway." Ryoma replied curtly.

"Buchou, is it true? You guys are cousins?!" Jiroh asked excitedly to Atobe.

"Can everyone take a seat? Ore-sama will do the explaining."

So everyone took a seat almost immediately and was so eager to hear the explanation.

"So, Ryoma and ore-sama are cousins here since ore-sama's mother and Ryoma's mother are sisters. That's about it. Honesty though, ore-sama does not see the big deal about it."

"SO ATOBE YOU'RE NOT HER BOYFRIEND?"

"NYAA OCHIBI, YOU'RE NOT DATING ATOBE?!"

"WHAT!" Both Ryoma and Atobe replied incredulously.

"What made you think that way?" Ryoma asked them again, shocked with what her seniors were asking her.

"OCHIBI, YOU NEVER DENY THAT YOU'RE WITH ATOBE! AND HE HUGS YOU AND ALL THAT"

"Because he's my cousin. I told him not to a thousand times okay."

"AND HE ALWAYS VISITS IN YOUR SCHOOL!"

"His fault again."

"HE BRINGS YOU LUNCH!"

"His fault."

"Can you give us proper explanation!"

"That is an explanation."

All the seniors sweatdropped at their junior's answer and attempted 'explanation'.

"BUT HE CALLS YOU PRINCESS!"

"His – "

"I SWEAR IF YOU SAY HIS FAULT ONE MORE TIME, OCHIBI, I WILL HUG YOU TO DEATH!"

"What about Yukimura, then?" Inui suddenly asked and everybody went quiet to wait for the answer.

"What about him?" She retorted back.

"Well, are you and buchou together?" Marui asked her.

"Wait? NO! Sei's my childhood friend."

"But you were hugging in the hospital!" Kirihara exclaimed.

"Saa, can't two childhood and very close friends hug each other, Akaya?"

At that, Kirihara promptly shut his mouth since he still valued his life.

"But he called you Ri-chan! And he's not your family!"

"So? I don't see what's the problem."

"BUT!"

"Besides, Sei doesn't like me that way."

"How could you know! You're not buchou!" Marui insisted.

"I know because Sei likes…" She was about to say something before catching the words before they were blurted out.

"Buchou likes who!"

Ryoma looked at Seiichi because it wasn't her place to say it.

"I can't say. But basically he doesn't like me that way. Right, Sei?"

"Yes, I don't like Ri-chan that way."

"WAIT!" Kikumaru butted in, "SO BASICALLY NEITHER YUKIMURA OR ATOBE IS YOUR BOYFRIEND!"

"That's what I've been trying to say for the past hour, geez." Her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"HOW CAN YOU LIE TO US RYOMA-CHAN!"

"I didn't lie to you, you guys just assumed."

"ECHIZEN!"

"HOW COULD YOU LIE TO US!"

"RYOMA-CHAN"

"RYOMA!"

All at once the rest of the groups shouted their disbelief. Ryoma and Atobe (and the rest of the people who were quiet such as Yukimura, who enjoyed himself at this, Tezuka, Sanada and etc) winced at their loudness.

"CAN YOU GUYS SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ryoma finally blew up. She had had it with all these assumptions from these seniors and their crazy loud voices. If she had not gone deaf by this time next year, it would be nothing short of a miracle, she swore inwardly. It was her business and her business alone. They had no right whatsoever to poke their noses where they didn't belong. She was tired living a life where people knew all the details in her life. She got that with the paparazzi in the States and just when she thought she could have some peace in Japan, no she was blessed with nosy seniors. Note the sentence was dripping with sarcasm.

The room went into immediate silence.

"You guys have not only poked into MY business but you guys are so freaking loud about it! I've had it with you guys. All of you come into my life and started poking into MY business. I've had it with the paparazzi in the States and now you're just doing the same. No, you guys are doing WORSE. So there, I hope all of you are happy to know. I hope all of you are happy to know that my own seniors attacked me in my own life. I thought I could finally have some peace coming to Seigaku, but this is even worse than in the States. You guys are unbelievable. Kei could jolly well be my husband and I still wouldn't tell you a thing. Seriously, it's my life. What right do you guys have to fucking - "

"Ryoma-chan, language honey." Atobe was the only one brave enough to interrupt her little outburst.

"Its their fault!"

"Doesn't mean you can make threats like that, you're a lady of Echizen. Not to mention we have so many guests here, Ryoma-chan."

"But they are really annoying, Kei!" She huffed.

"We're sorry, ochibi." Kikumaru stammered his apology, "We didn't know you felt like that."

"We're really terrible Echizen." Akaya said.

"We are Echizen," Momoshiro said awkwardly, "We just care for you as our junior. We promised we would stop doing that if you don't feel comfortable by it."

"Whatever."

"Ryoma-chan, don't behave like a child." Atobe chided her gently.

"I am NOT behaving like a child, Kei."

"You are sulking now."

"I AM NOT!" She said with a volume louder than she intended to.

"We are really sorry, Echizen. We didn't mean to make you so angry. We really didn't know that you felt you are being attacked by us. We promised we wouldn't do it again. We really do feel terrible, Echizen. Will you forgive us?" Oishi tried apologizing on behalf of the team.

All the other boys nodded profusely and had the decency to look solemn and regretful.

"Fine, apology accepted."

She was still angry but she refused to be a child by holding on the grudges. It wasn't like her to be childish and holding grudges like this. Okay maybe it was. But she refused to act like a 5 years old in this party full of her family's business partners. No, she would be the bigger (wo)man and acted like a lady.

"YEAYYY!"

"THANK YOU ECHIZEN!"

"WE LOVE YOU OCHIBI!"

Suddenly, Ryoma felt herself being attacked by hugs by several people and found herself having difficulty breathing.

"Now that this is over, ore-sama suggests all of us head back to the party place for now."

"FOOD NYA!"

"LETS EAT SOME GOOD FOOD!"

"You're so greedy…"

"WHAT WAS THAT MAMUSHI!"

"YEAY FOOD!"

And somehow all of them acted like they had forgotten the deal just now and focused on the food.

"Echizen."

"Buchou" She snapped her head to her captain who hadn't said much during the whole ordeal.

"I apologize on behalf of all the tennis members about their behavior."

"Betsuni" She felt like a child being scolded by her father for being childish, even when her own buchou was actually apologizing.

"Isn't this amusing, Ri-chan?" A chirpier voice was heard.

"Seii…"

"Well it is amusing for me," Seiichi was smiling with his trademark smile, "Now now, let this go Ri-chan. It's all over anyway. C'mon lets go to the others."

"I'll go later, Sei. I need some fresh air now." She left whoever was left not looking for food and went toward the door. She was still seething with her seniors' actions and their nosiness. But now she definitely needed to cool herself down to prevent herself from doing things to her seniors she would regret later on. So, with that in mind, she headed to the one place in Kei's house that she knew no one else in the party would go to.

"If I were you, I would probably accidentally wonder around the 3rd floor, and stumble upon a stair at the end of the hallway and headed to the rooftop. Fufufu," Yukimura whispered lowly to Fuji, the sadistic smile still plastered on his face, "C'mon let's go now Gen."

Sanada followed him wordlessly, and off the two went.

"I'll go help myself a drink," Fuji excused himself – with an excuse no one probably believed but wisely stayed quiet.

 **. . .**

 _Rooftop_

Ryoma was enjoying the night breeze while sitting on a chair in the middle of the rooftop. The Atobe rooftop was unique. It wasn't exactly a rooftop, more of an outdoor patio with a roof on the 3rd floor. There were a few chairs, tables with umbrella and a barbecue pit. It was meant for small outdoor gathering, usually only with close relative and friends. Only the Atobe, the Echizen and some other close friends knew about this place, which was why Ryoma wasn't worried people would find her here. She needed some time alone to cool down anyway. And the breezy wind was helping her mind to calm down.

"Ryoma-chan,"

She quickly whipped her head toward the source of the voice, "Fuji-senpai. What are you, how even?"

"A little birdy told me about this place, Ryoma-chan. So how are you doing?" Fuji told her while making his way and picked a sofa nearer to the edge of the patio.

"I'm fine." She replied curtly.

"You're obviously not. Come here" Fuji patted to the empty seat beside her.

Ryoma made no sound whatsoever, but she stood up and went to sit next to him.

"What do you want, Fuji-senpai?"

"I want to know how you're doing."

"I told you I'm fine."

"And we all know you're not very good at lying, Ryoma-chan."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm angry at the seniors for behaving that way? Yes I'm angry and I feel bad because they are actually sorry about it, but I can't help but feel upset about it. You guys have no right to poke into my life like that."

Fuji just listened to her ranting her feeling out. Encouraged by the silence she received, she continued,

"I'm just so tired of all this. I'm tired of people trying to know what is up with my life. I'm tired of people trying to be friends with me and turned out they were just there to see me fail all along. Like you guys are just waiting to see me fall and wait for the moment to laugh at me. I'm tired of letting people in and trusting people too easily only to have them take advantage of me."

Seeing how his junior had finished her rants, he spoke gently,

"Ryoma-chan, you know we wouldn't be those people that would laugh at you if, not when, you fail. We would be there to help you stand up instead. We wouldn't be those people that would take advantage of you, Ryoma-chan. Well, at least I wouldn't. I've seen you in your worst before and I didn't take advantage of you, did I? I wouldn't dare hurt you in any way, Ryoma-chan."

"…"

"Ryoma-chan, look at me." He tipped her chin up to meet her and opened his eyes, "Do I look like a person that would hurt you, Ryoma-chan?"

"No"

"So can you trust us? I know it's a lot to ask you after all this, but I'll ask something small. Can you trust me, at least?"

"…"

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, she muttered sofly, so softly Fuji thought he heard wrong, "Okay."

He went to pull the girl to his arm and gave her a hug. It seemed to surprise her for a moment, and he could feel her went stiff. But after a moment, he could feel her relaxing in his embrace and leaned into him.

"Thank you, Ryoma-chan."

They stayed like that for what 10 minutes, or an hour, or the whole night – Fuji didn't know. Time was a foreign concept to them in that place.

"Come on, Ryoma-chan, stand up." He suddenly let her go and stood up.

"Why?"

"Would you kindly have your first dance with me? Remember I asked you in the text to save me a dance.".

"But we don't have music."

"Listen around you, Ryoma-chan. We have all the music we need." He held out his hand to her.

He saw the hesitation in her eyes but finally she took his hand. He pulled her to her feet and placed one hand on her waist and the other on her hand, while she put her hands on his shoulder and hand.

Fuji went to lead the dance with her. They didn't seem to get the rhythm at first, and Ryoma kept stepping on Fuji's feet. They laughed at it. But after a few more tries, they finally got it together.

And under the beautiful moonlight and stars, they danced and laughed the night away.

After what seemed so long, they finally stopped dancing and stared at each other's eyes.

Ryoma looked like the most beautiful thing right now with her cheek flushed and hair a bit disheveled. Her beauty was ethereal. God, he loved her. He just wanted to spend the night looking at those bright beautiful eyes and maybe kissed her as well. But he knew better. He wouldn't want to scare her away now that he gained a little of her trust.

So Fuji planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Aaa, Fuji-senpai." Ryoma was flustered after receiving the kiss. Her face was bright red and somehow her heart was beating faster than usual.

"That's to cheer you up, Ryoma-chan. Let's go back to the party now. People must be worried about you."

He grabbed her hand and led her to the stairs.

"Thank you so much, senpai." Ryoma whispered softly.

"My pleasure, Ryoma-chan."

And he didn't let go one bit throughout the way back to the party.

* * *

I bet you guys didn't expect the FujiRyo fluff in this chapter hehehe. How did you guys find it? Review for me, okay!

PS: It might take a while for me to write the next chapters since I'm getting busy with schoolwork and I'm currently more into reading other people's story, sorry. And its kinda demoralising to see my traffic graph for the previous chapter had been 0 for the past 3 days. I guess people arent reading this as much anymore. But I shall finish the story for all the loyal reviewers and readers out there!

xoxo,

riwinkle


	25. 23: New Misunderstanding

Chapter 23: New Misunderstanding

I'm back after I don't know how long. Sorry about the very very late update. I recently just transferred to a new school in a new place and everything was hectic. So I'm trying my best to cope up with the new environment here.

So, I wanted to not finish this story and just leave it behind, which explained the missing updates for a few months. But I finally decided to write again and finish the story, because I am not a quitter.

If anyone is still reading this fiction, here is the next chapter.

* * *

It was a few weeks after the party and things had finally calmed down. Her seniors had somehow seemed to accept the fact that she was indeed Atobe's cousin. And although she was upset with her seniors in the party, she finally decided to let it go. All was well again in Seigaku. She had a normal relationship to every one of her seniors, or most of them.

The weird thing was that after that secret session and dance on the rooftop, she somehow couldn't look at Fuji-senpai's eyes without feeling weird. Every time she was near him, her body reacted involuntarily. Her heart was beating faster, and her face would always feel hot, especially if she was remembering _that_ night. She just didn't know what to do around him anymore.

So she did what every normal person would do, she avoided him. Whenever she saw him in the hallway, she would walk the opposite direction. And during tennis practice, she would run faster than him so she wouldn't have to talk to him. If by any chance, coach put her to have a practice with him, she would just say the necessary things around him. Nothing less, nothing more.

 **. . .**

Fuji, on the other hand, was confused. He was confused as of why Ryoma-chan was avoiding him. He was a tensai, so he would know whenever Ryoma-chan was running away the opposite direction from him or when she didn't say a lot of things to him.

Was she angry with him because of the kiss? He hoped not. She did say thank you right? He hoped he didn't take things too fast with her. But it wasn't entirely his fault. She was just so beautiful that he couldn't help but placed a kiss on her forehead. He hoped she wasn't feeling awkward with that kiss. But even if it did, he did not regret his decision one bit. He followed his heart at that time. He just hoped she did not get angry at him for too long.

 **. . .**

Ryoma decided to go on a walk alone after practice to clear her head. She swore there was something wrong with her. Why was that she was avoiding her senpai? This was unbecoming of her. She never felt this way before so she had no idea what type of sickness was she experiencing right now. Maybe it was a new type of fever? And what's the cure for this?

"Well, well, what do we have here? A little girl wondering around alone this hour." A man stood tall in front of her, breaking her train of thoughts.

She looked up to see it was a drunken man, "Go away."

"Aren't you a brave little one?" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him.

"LET ME GO! I learn martial arts, mind you." She tried to wring her hand free but failed.

"Martial arts? Don't make me laugh. Why don't you try little girl?"

She tried again but failed due to the difference in size, the grasp on her hand was too strong since he was a full-grown man.

"That's your martial arts skill? Pathetic. You know no matter what you're still a girl, right? You can't win against men so easily." The drunken man laughed crazily and started to rip open her blouse.

"NO! LET ME GO YOU BASTARD!" She kicked the man's leg. The man screamed but didn't let her go.

"Watch your mouth, you pathetic bitch. How dare you kick me? I was trying to be nice and would probably let you go after a few kisses, but after what you did, I'm gonna rape you so painfully that you will wish to die instead. There's no one to help you now."

'There's no one to help you now'

 **. . .**

 _Hearing her voice, the said boy immediately looked up and his face seemed to perk up. "Err, here, I wanted to give you this…" while holding up a can of grape-flavored American brand Ponta, "You had a really a great match, and I thought you might be thirsty." The boy seemed very shy and timid._

 _'Well, I guess the boy means no harm, and he had my favorite drink_ _' Ryoma thought and took the can, opened it and started to drink it._

 _"Well, thanks boy."_

 _And she went into the room, leaving the boy outside, and started changing._

 _After a while, she suddenly had a headache and her line of vision started to get blurry. '_ _Weird, why do I feel so dizzy?_ _'_

 _She settled down on her chair to chase the headache away, but it seemed to get worse. And there, she saw the timid boy, smiling evilly in front of her._

 _"Call for help please, I'm not feeling so well,"_

 _"There's no one to help you now."_

 **. . .**

"There's no one to help you now."

Tears started to well in her eyes. Hearing this familiar sentence, her body involuntarily froze. The memories of that wretched night came back to her again. Her body remembered the feeling and shivered.

"Let me go… please…" She begged, but it fell on a deaf ear on the drunken man. She felt trickle of tears on her cheeks. "Stop… No..."

"Now you're acting like a girl. But that ain't gonna help you, sweetheart."

The way he mentioned 'sweetheart' was anything but sweet. It made her want to puke and it made her shivered even more. She did not want things to end like this.

She could feel his smelly drunken breath near her ears

THWACK

Just then, she could feel the weight on her was lifted off and she saw Fuji standing there.

"YOU BASTARD!" Fuji landed another punch to the drunken man and when the man tried to get him back, Fuji pulled off some moves and slammed him onto the ground. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

Fuji was beyond furious right now. No one had ever seen the tensai that angry before. How dare this man put his hands on her! He landed another punch to him, "ANSWER ME, WHAT DID YOU DO!"

But the man was already on the verge on unconsciousness and wasn't answering. This made his anger rose even more. He beat the man to a pulp even when he could feel his knuckles were bleeding from the punch.

When he heard Ryoma's sob and her calling his name weakly, "Fuji-senpai.." Fuji jerked up and realised he was needed somewhere else.

"DON'T YOU EVER GO NEAR HER!" Fuji shouted, even when the man couldn't hear him, and ran off to Ryoma.

Ryoma was in a mess. Her skirt was lifted up to her hip and her blouse was torn in half. Anyone could see her undergarments clearly showing up under her tattered clothes. Her hair was really disheveled and her faced was stricken with tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably. Fuji quickly shed off his school jacket and covered her. Luckily she was small enough for the jacket to cover her modestly. Fuji took Ryoma to his arms and cradled her.

"Shh, it's okay now Ryoma-chan. Everything's fine. Shh, it will be fine. I'm here now."

"He… I wasn't… Tried…" She tried to explain but failed miserably as she uttered some incorrigible words. "I don't… Never felt scared like this…"

"Don't worry Ryoma-chan, he won't hurt you anymore."

She cried even louder and her body was shaking.

"He tried… to rape me… just like before… oh gosh"

Ryoma started to hyperventilate and was having a panic attack due to the trauma of remembering the previous event. Her body was shaking uncontrollably and she was gasping for air.

' _I need to calm Ryoma-chan down. What do I do? What can I do?'_ Fuji started to panic as well seeing Ryoma like this, and without thinking…

His lip landed on hers and he hugged her even tighter if that was possible.

It worked. Ryoma immediately stopped crying and looked at her senior with very wide eyes. Then she realized what just happened and blushed heavily. She looked down, not daring to look at her senior's eyes anymore. Her heart was beating so loud she was sure Fuji-senpai could hear it. It couldn't be, could it? That her senpai liked her?

"Ryoma-chan, look at me."

"…"

"I'm sorry that I kissed you, I just panicked and didn't know what to do to calm you down."

And for some unknown reason, Ryoma felt her heart being broken to pieces hearing that. There was a pain in her chest and she didn't know why.

* * *

Hope you enjoy that, sorry if the pace seems a little fast. I'm just trying to get it done as soon as possible.

I don't know when the next update going to be, but hopefully soon.

xoxo,

riwinkle


	26. 24: Feelings?

Chapter 24

I know I haven't been updating for the longest time. I can't promise you I would regularly update the story, but this is for the people who stayed with the story and encouraged me to write it soon. So, here you go!

Disclaimer: POT does not belong to me.

* * *

After Fuji-senpai took her home, she went straight to her bed. She didn't even say good night or anything to her senpai, she just went in to the house. Luckily, her parents were out of town for business and Nanako-nee had not come home yet. She saw the post-it notes Nanako left for her,

"Ryoma-chan, here is your dinner, just heat it up when you come home. I might come home late. Nanako"

But she wasn't in the mood to eat. She didn't know what happened to her. Tonight was too much for her to handle. She was almost raped again, and she got kissed by her senpai, albeit the wrong reason. Somehow, because of the kiss, the rape incident did not feel as significant. Yes, she was scared. And yes, she was crying. Yet, her senpai came just in time to save her and comfort her enough that she forgot the pain. On the way home, she knew that no matter where she was, she did not need to be scared because Fuji-senpai would be there for her. Even if he did not like her.

Ryoma thought about the kiss and felt her face heating up. What did the kiss mean? And why did she feel her heart was beating too fast? But she knew she could not hope for anything. Hearing that her senpai only kissed her because he was panicking broke something inside of her.

Her head hurt from thinking too much and she decided to have a shower instead to cleanse herself. After the shower, she felt so much better and went to her room. It was then that she realized next to her bed, Sei had left a sunflower, her favourite, for her. She saw it the piece of paper tied to the flower that has Sei's writing on it.

Reading the note, her eyes went big and it was then that she muttered,

"Uso? No way," but she knew Sei was right.

She came to a realization that _she indeed liked her senpai_ , even if it was a little bit. That was why it hurt her when Fuji-senpai said he only kissed her to calm her down. Even then, it did not change the fact that her senpai did not return the feeling. For now, she needed some time to sort her feelings out.

 **…**

Ryoma's family and Atobe's family, especially Kei, noticed the difference in Ryoma, but they could not tell the reason for it. She seemed to be more expressive and in tap with her heart more. And Fuji-senpai did not tell anybody about the incident at the park, so that was working for her as she was working to forget it. She knew she would soon overcome it. She was a strong girl.

 **…**

Ever since he had said that incident in the park, he knew she had been avoiding him like plague. He knew she had turned the other way around when they met in the hallway. He knew she was keeping her distance in practice and would not want to be anywhere near him. And if she had to something with him, courtesy of Tezuka, she would do so without so much of a word. She tried to keep her words curt and business-like to him.

The problem was he had no idea why. He was confused as to the sudden change to Ryoma-chan's attitude. It was a 180 degree change.

Yes, he was a tensai, but he couldn't figure out as of why Ryoma-chan was upset with him. He couldn't recall anything that was hurtful to Ryoma and he couldn't remember Ryoma being upset to him. If anything, they seemed closer to each other ever since the Atobe's party with both of them spending time in the rooftop and the park incident. He thought everything was going smoothly.

It had been 5 days now that Ryoma-chan was avoiding him. And he had tried every method to catch her so he could get an explanation. He really wanted to know what he did wrong. But it wasn't so easy to catch Ryoma-chan apparently. Every time he went to her classroom, he was told that she went off to nobody knew where. And each time he tried to catch her after practice, she would always ran off before he could even lay his eyes on her. She was elusive. Very elusive. And he really couldn't stand it anymore. This game of cat and mouse was getting ridiculous.

 **…**

Ryoma was beating Momoshiro-senpai in a practice match, 5-3. It was his own fault that he relied too much on his brute force instead of his wit. She was sure Momo-senpai could improve and even the game out if he developed another style of playing that did not rely just on his strength.

"6-4, game set and match, Echizen"

"Damn it! You win this time, Ryoma. Just wait until next time"

"Mada mada, senpai"

She left the court to get some water when Inui called her,

"Echizen, come meet me in the club house. I have some training regime that I need to discuss with you."

"Hn.."

She was only 5 steps away from the door when Inui noticed his shoelaces are untied,

"Ah," as he bent down, "Go on, Echizen. I'll meet you after tying this"

 _'It's rare for Inui-senpai to have his shoelaces untied…'_ Ryoma thought, but did not think much of it.

 _Bam… Click..._

She heard the door closed behind her and was locked from the outside.

 _'What?'_

"Ryoma-chan"

Ryoma snapped her head to the source of the voice and saw Fuji-senpai there. Something clicked in her mind. This must be Fuji-senpai's trick to get her talk to him.

It was not that she did not realize that she was avoiding her senpai, she did. She knew that Fuji-senpai had been trying to get chances to talk to her, but she was not stupid either. She would always wiggle herself out of any situation that required her to interact with him for too long. The incident at the park (the kiss) was just too eventful for her and she could not make herself forget about it. Ever since Sei's notes, she realized that she indeed

And she realized that she had no right to feel that way because Fuji-senpai was just her senior. She should not hold his actions responsible for her feeling.

"Senpai, why are you doing this?"

"This is the only way you would talk to me, Ryoma-chan."

"…"

"Ryoma-chan, did I do something to hurt you? What's wrong?"

"Betsuni"

"Ryoma-chan," Fuji said with a miserable look on his face, "I don't know what I did to hurt you, but I am sorry."

A surge of guilt immediately entered Ryoma's heart. Just because Fuji-senpai hurt her without knowing did not mean he should go through the same thing. He didn't even know the reason he was being avoided and that must have hurt him.

"Gomen ne, Senpai. It's not your fault. It's just my problem."

"What is it? Because if you tell me, I will definitely help you"

 _'I don't think you can help me unless your feeling change, Senpai,'_ She thought. But She decided to lie to her senpai instead. There was no point in telling Fuji-senpai and only caused him to feel guilty for not returning the feeling, "Iie, it's fine Fuji-senpai. I just had to sort thoughts out. The incident at the park was too much."

"You can share your thoughts with me any time, Ryoma-chan. I will be happy to share your problem. You told me you would trust me, right, Ryoma-chan?"

"Hai, senpai. Sorry for worrying you."

"Will you not avoid me anymore now?"

"No."

"Good" Fuji pulled Ryoma into a hug, "Thank you for not avoiding me anymore, Ryoma-chan"

Ryoma's face was blushing, but she enjoyed the warmth of her senpai and the fast beating of her own heart. There were no words that need to be said any longer as they embraced each other's presence.

After what seemed like a long time, Fuji said, "Let's just go home for now," as he took Ryoma's hand into his own and pulled her out of the door. Throughout the way, Fuji never let go of Ryoma's hands.

"Senpai,"

"Hm?"

"How did you convince Inui-senpai to help you out?"

Fuji smiled mischievously, "Saaa, it's a secret best you don't know."

 **...**

 _Ri-chan,_

 _Your heart knows the truth too well. Don't lie to it, you are just wasting your time. Listen to what it is saying even if you think it is impossible. Live you life listening to your heart and you will not have to worry about anything. I hope you come to a conclusion soon about your heart and its feelings_

 _PS: Don't worry, I won't tell Kei or anyone else. Yet ;)_

 _Sei_

* * *

There you go people. Hope you enjoyed it. I don't even know why I am still here. I guess i just want to finish something I did.

 _x,_

 _riwinkle_


	27. Chapter 25-27: A Date Day

25, 26, 27 (just to match the #)

A/N: Hi guys, I am back after a long break. I got some notifications in my email and that kinda made me realize that people are still reading this! Which then reminded me to come back and finish the story. Sorry that Ryoma is getting more and more OOC somehow

Disclaimer: POT doesn't belong to me of course!

. . .

It was the last day of school for this week, the beloved Friday. Ryoma was sleepily walking to school as usual, when she heard a voice she recognized.

"Ohayo, Ryoma-chan"

She kept on walking, knowing full well the owner of the voice would catch up, especially with his longer legs.

"Ohayo, Fuji-senpai," replying with a yawn.

"My, my, aren't you full of energy today, Ryoma-chan?"

"…"

Fuji thought something was weird with her today and grabbed her hand, "Are you okay Ryoma-chan?"

Shocked by this gesture, Ryoma stopped her track and could start feeling her cheek burning up, "…"

"I thought you said you wouldn't avoid me again?"

"Ano, Fuji-senpai, I think you got it all wrong. I wasn't trying to avoid you. Emm, I just emm knew you would catch up, so emm I didn't stop. And I was just sleepy today, that's all"

"Really? Yokata," Fuji sighed, feeling relieved. He would have no idea what to do anymore if Ryoma was still avoiding her even after promising it to him the other day. He could not figure out since when her opinion mattered a lot to him, all he knew was that he definitely did not want her to stay away from him.

"Okay then, let's walk to school together"

"Ano, Fuji-senpai…"

"What, Ryoma-chan?"

"You are still holding my hand," she pointed at her wrist where Fuji's hand lied on top.

"Ah, gomen gomen" and let it go. Immediately after that, Ryoma felt a weird emptiness in her hand. She ignored that and just kept on walking with her senpai to school.

. . .

 _During afternoon practice,_

It was a hot day today. Ryoma was just finishing a set with Momo-senpai and of course she won, but she was sweating quite a lot today.

' _Ponta. Ponta. Gotta find some Ponta!'_

Just right after she went out the court door to find Ponta, she could feel something cold touching her cheek.

"Here you go, Ryoma-chan" She looked to the left and saw her senpai with her favourite grape Ponta.

"Ah, thank you Fuji-senpai."

Fuji just smiled a warm smile to her and walked to the other field together.

"Momo, come here! Faster!" Kikumaru whispered quite loudly and gestured to Momoshiro to come see the scene.

"What is it, Kikumaru-senpai?"

"Look, look! Doesn't Fuji seem weird to you?"

"Weird how?"

"Look at his smile! It's not the usual creepy smile, it looks different."

"Now that you mentioned it, that seems right"

"That smile is 1cm wider that usual." Inui said in between them, coming out of nowhere.

"AH! Inui!" Kikumaru jumped because of shock, "Why do you have to do that!"

"Ever since the party at Atobe's, you can see that everytime Fuji is with Ryoma, his smile is 1-3cm wider and has 50% more warmth"

"Right! I only see him smiling like that to ochibi, nya! And he is so attentive to our ochibi!"

"Ahhh, young love," Momoshiro exclaimed chirpily.

"He's older than you, Momo…" Kikumaru rebutted.

Fuji saw the three of his teammates, but decided to ignore them. Even if they realized how he smiled more warmly to Ryoma, now that he knew his feeling and making Ryoma his was his only goal. He could care less if other people found out, in fact, that's even better to fend off any other suitor of hers. "So, Ryoma-chan, what are you doing this weekend?"

"Sleeping and playing with Karupin"

"Do you want to go out with me?"

At this, she stopped her track and turned her head to Fuji-senpai, "What?"

"You said you're free this weekend, so come with me instead."

"I didn't say I was free"

"Sleeping and playing all day mean you are free, Ryoma-cha. You do want to come right?" Fuji smiled a bit threateningly.

"Betsuni," his smile made her a little nervous (although she would have said yes even without the smile).

"Good then, I will text you what time I'll pick you up"

"Eh! Why would you pick me up, senpai?"

"Because I want to"

"But I can go by myself, I am not a weak child!"

This time, it was Fuji who halted his walk. Why was he not surprised by her simple reaction? His opened his eye and his stare turned a little softer to her. "What's wrong with picking you up? I am not saying you are weak, I just want to meet earlier? Is that wrong?"

Hearing this, Ryoma diverted her gaze to the ground and could feel blood rushing to her cheek again.

"Now now, it's not nice to reject your senpai's offer, Ryoma-chan."

"Haii, senpai"

"Good, it's a date then. See you tomorrow! I have a match against Inui now" and Fuji left after saying that.

"Eh? What?!"

. . .

' _I will pick you up at 9am sharp. Wear something nice okay, Ryoma-chan? ;) Oyasumi'_

. . .

 _Saturday_

"ARGH!"

Hearing Ryoma screamed, Nanako immediately dropped her things and ran as fast as she could.

"What's wrong, Ryoma-chan? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" She said it as she opened the door.

"Nanako-nee…" Ryoma said with frustration in her tone.

What greeted Nanako was not Ryoma getting hurt or bleeding anywhere, but a pile of clothes on her bed and the floor as well. She could also see hair clips and hair bands everywhere. She could see that her cousin was getting ready to go somewhere and wanted to look nice. She smiled at this.

"Are you going somewhere today, Ryoma-chan?"

"Errr… I have to go meet… A senior. Fuji-senpai, but I don't know what to wear. He told me to wear something nice, that's it."

Nanako's smile got even wider, "You're meeting Fuji today, eh?"

"It's not what you think, Nanako-nee"

"Sure, sure whatever floats your boat, Ryoma-chan. C'mon let me help you find some great clothes. Do you know where you guys are going?"

"Betsuni, he just told me he would be here at 9am."

"9am?! That's only 40 minutes away from now! Okay, let's start"

. . .

 _Ding Dong_

"Ah that's must be Fuji ringing the doorbell."

"Am I done, nee-san?"

"Yep! You look very nice now. I'll open the door for him, go get your stuff in the bag and come down."

As soon as Nanako left, Ryoma felt her heart beating so fast, nervous seeing Fuji-senpai. ' _Get yourself together, Ryoma! You are just meeting Fuji-senpai!'_ With that, she came down the stair and saw Fuji-senpai wearing a shirt with a sweater vest on top of it and some long pants. He looked very charming, indeed.

"Ohayo, Nanako-nee-san, Ohayo Ryoma-chan." Fuji greeted them and smiled even wider. His Ryoma-chan was dressing up really nicely with a white sundress and hair let down. It was a simple look but that made her looked even more innocent and adorable, like an angel.

"Ready to go, Ryoma-chan?"

"Where are we going, senpai?" Ryoma asked while they were walking down the streets together.

"It's a secret of course!"

"Hnnn…"

"Are you excited, Ryoma-chan?"

"I don't even know where we are going, senpai. How do I know whether it's safe for me or not, especially knowing you, senpai."

At this, Fuji just chuckled hearing her straightforward response, "Would I ever put you in danger?"

"Maybe, no, I don't know. Betsuni"

"C'mon, we have to get to the train soon. So, what do you think we are going to do today?"

"Betsuni"

"Aww don't be such a spoil-sport. Do you want to guess, Ryoma-chan?"

"No"

"I'll give you a hint, in exchange for a favor of course."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"If you get it right, I'll treat you for lunch and dessert"

That definitely got Ryoma's attention. Lunch and dessert! "Okay, are we going to street tennis?"

"Nopeee. You wanna play tennis in a sundress? I don't mind of course."

"… The aquarium then?"

"Nopeee, guess again. I'll give you a hint, there will be lots of rides and screaming today!"

"The amusement park!"

"Bingo!"

"Really, senpai? We are going to the amusement park? Yeay yeay" Ryoma started to exclaim happily, it's been a while since she went to Tokyo amusement park. Especially since she was in the US for all this while. Training with Seigaku didn't allow her to have much free time anyway.

"C'mon, we are here!" In front of them, there was the sign 'Tokyo Amusement Park' with all the rides inside.

"Let's go onto the roller coaster first, senpai," Ryoma started running toward the ride, but saw that Fuji-senpai wasn't moving fast. "Hurry up!"

Fuji just chuckled and fastened his pace, "My my, so impatient already."

"C'mon, c'mon!" Ryoma just grabbed Fuji-senpai's hand and pulled him towards her. She did not realize this gesture, but Fuji did of course. He could feel his heart skipped a little faster at the contact.

Off they went to enjoy a lot of rides and roller coasters.

"I'm hungry, senpai"

"Shall we have lunch then?"

"What are we eating? Since you are treating me, let's eat burgers!"

"Let's go to a restaurant instead"

"Eh, but I want burgers, whyyy?"

"Because I gave you a hint where we were going, so now you owe me a favour, Ryoma-chan."

"Cheater," she said sulking.

"I promise this food will taste better!"

They went inside the _violet café_ and ordered some lunch while talking amiably during lunch. Fuji didn't want to eat burger because of course it had to be something more special than mere burgers for their date. He wants this to be a memorable day for Ryoma-chan, and not just a senpai-junior day but a date day. It is kind of cute to see her want burgers, even if she came from a wealthy family. How grounded this cute junior of his was.

"Now, shall we order dessert?"

"HAI! I want the 'Tokyo Special Extra Large Cake, senpai"

"Hai hai. Can we get one of those please?" He asked the waiter, "and one green tea latte for me."

"Just a latte, senpai?"

"I am going to share yours of course!"

"Eh! When did I say I want to share?"

"Of course you are sharing, Ryoma-chan!" Fuji smiled warmly at her greediness. Why would he waste an opportunity of _indirect kiss_ go easily? Of course they were sharing!

"Fine, but I get all the brownies on top!" And just at that, the order came. Ryoma immediately dug in.

"Ryoma-chan, you have some icing on you"

"Really?" she said while trying to wipe it.

' _Click'_

"Why are you taking a picture of me with icing on my mouth, Senpai!"

"It's cute! The icing it's on the left side by the way. Here let me get it for you," Fuji stood up and reached out to her mouth. Their faces were inches apart, and Ryoma was immediately flustered.

"…"

"All done, Ryoma-chan."

"Thank you, senpai," seeing her short reaction, Fuji looked up and saw Ryoma-chan's face blushing red.

They spent the entire day at the amusement park until the park was closing. They had so much fun and took so many pictures (voluntarily and involuntarily, not to mention secret pictures – the one where Ryoma was against sunset just made her look like a real life fallen angel! Definitely a keeper.)

On the way back home, Ryoma started to doze off because she was tired. Her head started nodding against the bus' window. Noticing this, Fuji put his hand in between her head and the window so she did not knock her head. Soon enough though, Fuji directed her head to his shoulder.

He thought back to the earlier incident where she was blushing when he was trying to take the icing off her mouth, and other physical incidents like that. He thought could it be a sign that Ryoma-chan liked him back, but he brushed it off. How could Ryoma-chan like someone when all she thought about was tennis. For now, he had to content himself with this then.

. . .

Done! Hope you guys like this chapter. Uploading next chapter would be sporadic, so please wait patiently to any reader who has been faithful to this story! Thank you guys a bunch

 _xoxo_

 _riwinkle_


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